Next weekend, October 21-23, the New Colonnade Mall in association with the Cebu Executives and Professionals Association (Cepca) will be sponsoring a chess tournament open to all players including ladies and kiddies as well as Cepca members.
Format is 9 rounds Swiss with a time control of one hour per player, play to finish. All games will be played at Oriente Colonnade Mall along Colon St.
This tournament will be sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and all participants will be accorded NCFP Ratings after the tournament.
The Champion will take home P5,000 and the 1st runner-up P3,000.There will be prizes up to 10th place. In addition the top finishers of the ladies ,kiddies as well as Cepca members will get special prizes .
There will be 3 games per day starting at 10:am followed by a break and will resume at 1pm. The final game of the day will be at 3:30 pm.
Registration will be P150 for all players including Cepca members while ladies and kiddies will pay only P75.
As there might be a shortage of chess clocks and sets, .those who bring their own clocks and sets will get a deduction of P50 from the registration fee meaning men pay only P100 and ladies and kiddies will pay only P25.
This is a project of the new and renovated Colonnade Mall management organized by Cepca under its new president Jojo Muralla to promote the royal game in Cebu.
This is a Grand Prix tournament meaning it will be a series of monthly contests followed by quarterly tournaments and a grand final in October next year.
These tournaments will surely make Cebu the center of chess activities in the country as no other place in the Philippines have such a program.
Grand Slam Just like golf and tennis, chess also has its own Grand Slam and is accorded the highest importance by Fide in the chess calendar.
The 4th Grand Slam Masters final has just concluded and continuing the new trend of sharing the event with a partner city, the organizers in Bilbao, Spain have chosen São Paulo this year to host the first half.
Magnus Carlsen won after beating Vassily Ivanchuk 1.5-0.5 in a blitz play-off. Carlsen has 15 points, the same score as Ivanchuk who finished second.
Behind them, Levon Aronian, World Champion Vishy Anand and and Hikaru Nakamura are sharing the third place with 12 points each. The Spanish Francisco Vallejo is closing the standings with 10 points.
Scoring was “football” style meaning 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.
Format was double round robin with a time control of 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 10 seconds/move starting with the 1st move
This is the strongest tournament for this year as the top 3 players –Carlsen,Anand and Aronian-all have ratings above 2800 and the other 3 are over 2700
Magnus Carlsen dominated the Bilbao half of the Final Masters and finished level with Vassily Ivanchuk who played with excellent results in Sao Paolo. Carlsen would have won the event with a normal scoring system but won anyhow.
Vassily Ivanchuk also played a fine tournament but his play was more uneven. The big news of the tourney was his mugging and robbery together with his wife as he was leaving Sao Paolo on the way to the airport.
Nakamura and Anand are obviously disappointed at the results and Aronian was below par and not his usual self. His win against Anand was one of his few bright spots.
As for Francisco Vallejo Pons ,he was targeted every round. He's a good and very strong player but the others were just better.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Women chess
"They're all weak, all women. They're stupid compared to men.
They shouldn't play chess, you know. They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man.
There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat."
Robert Fischer,1962
Chess is a man`s game. It does not have the same appeal to women and why this is so is somewhat of a mystery.
The ratio of chess playing women to men is about 1:30 and may be even less as there are only 3 women in the top 300 players.
The main reason is probably biological or genetic as there is no satisfactory answer(s). Physical strength is not needed in chess and according to some studies women have more endurance than men.
Also, according tho WGM Natalia Pogogina,if we look at the percentage of so-called “grandmaster draws” among women and men then we’ll see that women’s fighting spirits are definitely higher
So, maybe women are just less smart than men? On the average the answer is “no”. Then what’s the problem?
The answer seems to be psychological and the upbringing of girls compared to boys. A stereotype exists in chess that women are no match for men. It is based on statistical data. That’s why many female chess players are taught from early childhood that they’ll never make it to men’s level. Parents deem chess as a strange pastime for a girl,
There is even an amusing hypothesis that chess is for immature and weird people, so women (who tend to mature faster than men) don’t take up such a strange occupation.
Fide Has however not entirely neglected Women chess. We have a Women Grand Prix the same as men and a women world championship Cycle.
In the last 10 years the Chinese have dominated Women chess. The current champion is 17 year old Hou Yifan.
Past Champions were Xie Jun (1991-96), Zhu Chen (2001-4) and Xu Yuhua (2006-8).
Beginning 2010, the Women's World Chess Championship will be held annually in alternating formats. In even years a 64 player knock out system will be used, in the odd years a classical match featuring only two players will be held.
The 2011 edition will be contested between the 2010 champion Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy of India next month
Batang Pinoy Our kiddie journalist, KC Morala, who is an excellent chess player sent in this report.
“Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano of USC and KeithClaire Carlisle Morala of USJ-R, emerge as the champions in the first Batang Pinoy Chess Tournament in Cebu, held this October 1, 2011 in the Cebu City Sports Complex.
In the girls category, Morala stages her own comeback. Though she lost her first round to fellow Josenian Sharon Princess Lee Pacres, it turned out to be the only speck on the girl’s category champion, having defeated the rest of her opponents.
Placing second was Queenylyn Torres of Abellana National High School, who seemingly had a hard time coping with the tournament’s 20 minute time limit on the first rounds, resulting to her losses due to time forfeit. Pacres settles as the third placer.
Torres, Pacres and another player from UC, Marvie Abucay, were supposedly tied with the record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, yet it was Torres who wins in the tiebreak for having defeated the other two.
Jazzelle Villarin of USC, who led her school’s team into the top in the Little Milo Olympics, unfortunately fell behind the others after losing her matches to Abucay, Torres and Morala .
Meanwhile, next to the 14-year-old child wonder Sevillano and running second was Felix Shaun Balbona, representative of USJ-R in the boys category. The two players will be be sent in Dumaguete together with Morala and Torres to represent Cebu in the Regional chessfest.”
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
They shouldn't play chess, you know. They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man.
There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat."
Robert Fischer,1962
Chess is a man`s game. It does not have the same appeal to women and why this is so is somewhat of a mystery.
The ratio of chess playing women to men is about 1:30 and may be even less as there are only 3 women in the top 300 players.
The main reason is probably biological or genetic as there is no satisfactory answer(s). Physical strength is not needed in chess and according to some studies women have more endurance than men.
Also, according tho WGM Natalia Pogogina,if we look at the percentage of so-called “grandmaster draws” among women and men then we’ll see that women’s fighting spirits are definitely higher
So, maybe women are just less smart than men? On the average the answer is “no”. Then what’s the problem?
The answer seems to be psychological and the upbringing of girls compared to boys. A stereotype exists in chess that women are no match for men. It is based on statistical data. That’s why many female chess players are taught from early childhood that they’ll never make it to men’s level. Parents deem chess as a strange pastime for a girl,
There is even an amusing hypothesis that chess is for immature and weird people, so women (who tend to mature faster than men) don’t take up such a strange occupation.
Fide Has however not entirely neglected Women chess. We have a Women Grand Prix the same as men and a women world championship Cycle.
In the last 10 years the Chinese have dominated Women chess. The current champion is 17 year old Hou Yifan.
Past Champions were Xie Jun (1991-96), Zhu Chen (2001-4) and Xu Yuhua (2006-8).
Beginning 2010, the Women's World Chess Championship will be held annually in alternating formats. In even years a 64 player knock out system will be used, in the odd years a classical match featuring only two players will be held.
The 2011 edition will be contested between the 2010 champion Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy of India next month
Batang Pinoy Our kiddie journalist, KC Morala, who is an excellent chess player sent in this report.
“Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano of USC and KeithClaire Carlisle Morala of USJ-R, emerge as the champions in the first Batang Pinoy Chess Tournament in Cebu, held this October 1, 2011 in the Cebu City Sports Complex.
In the girls category, Morala stages her own comeback. Though she lost her first round to fellow Josenian Sharon Princess Lee Pacres, it turned out to be the only speck on the girl’s category champion, having defeated the rest of her opponents.
Placing second was Queenylyn Torres of Abellana National High School, who seemingly had a hard time coping with the tournament’s 20 minute time limit on the first rounds, resulting to her losses due to time forfeit. Pacres settles as the third placer.
Torres, Pacres and another player from UC, Marvie Abucay, were supposedly tied with the record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, yet it was Torres who wins in the tiebreak for having defeated the other two.
Jazzelle Villarin of USC, who led her school’s team into the top in the Little Milo Olympics, unfortunately fell behind the others after losing her matches to Abucay, Torres and Morala .
Meanwhile, next to the 14-year-old child wonder Sevillano and running second was Felix Shaun Balbona, representative of USJ-R in the boys category. The two players will be be sent in Dumaguete together with Morala and Torres to represent Cebu in the Regional chessfest.”
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Jojo Muralla new Cepca president
The Cebu Executives and Professional Chess Association Inc. (Cepca) Recently elected a new set of officers for 2011-12 at their clubhouse in Mabolo last week.
The new set of officers ,who are also members of the Board of Trustees are Romualdo “Jojo” Muralla Jr.-president, Fabio Abucejo-Internal Vice- president, Jun Kidlat-External Vice- President,Dante Arguelles-Secretary. Ellery Berciles-Treasurer, Ogie Reyes –Auditor and Chessmoso-PRO. Other members of the Board are Jun Olis-Chairman Membership Committee and Mandy Baria –Chairman- Finance Committee.
Cepca is one of the oldest chess clubs in the country being founded in 1990 and has about 100 members.
The original founding members were Chessmoso. Art Ynclino, Sonny Sollano (+), Loy Minoza, Alex Tolentino, Gerry Tomakin (+), Antonio Climaco and Danny Pestano.
Aside from the regular members we also have honorary members who are also avid chess players and hold important positions both in government and the private sector. They are current Mayor Michael Rama,former Mayor Alvin Garcia, NM Matias “Bombi” Aznar (+) ,former Chairman of Southwestern University, businessman and Sportsman for this year Boojie Lim of Rose Pharmacy, businessman Kelly Uy of Cebu Progress Marketing and US based Dr. Darcy Tabotabo.
Past presidents of the club were Charter President Boy Pestano(2 consecutive terms),Alex Tolentino,Ben Dimaano, Gerry Tomakin (+),Ogie Reyes, Danny Pestano, Antonio Climaco, Manny Manzanares(2 terms and past president) , Victor Legaspina, Jun Olis(2 consecutive terms), Norway Lara, Mandy Baria, Emmanuel Matuco, Bobot Villaluna( +-2 terms).
Jojo finished a medical course in SWU (BSMT) with full scholarship because he was a varsity chess player and was also a 3rd year law student.
He worked for 15 years in the corporate world and is presently a businessman and exporter of fresh mangoes to other countries.
He is married to Nenen Saren and has a pretty and talented daughter Mary Grace.
Aside from chess he is a range officer and competitive shooter. He has participated in Australasia (level 4)competition and all over the country. He placed 2nd in the National Range Officer competition 2 years ago.
In his schooldays, he was team captain and board 1 player of the CSJ-R chess high school team and their team was champion for 4 consecutive years (1977-81) in the Cebu Catholic Schools Athletcs Association. In college his team SWU became the 1st ever team champion in the National UAAP in 1984. He was the team captain and board 3 player then.
Dante Arguelles ,the new club secretary,is not only one of the top players of the club but can also compete with the class A players of Cebu.
He has been a member since 1996 and has held various positions in the club.
He was twice Cepca Grand Slam Champion and was quarterfinalist in the Cebu Chess King several years ago. He once won a Rose Pharmacy Open and was a gold medalist in a commercial team tournament in Cebu.
Wife is Remedios and has 4 children: Pamela-who is working at Marina Bay in Singapore, Jhoanna –a real estate agent, Rochelle Michael and Dan Anthony ,a registered nurse in Gleneagle hospital in Singapore.
Ellery “Jame Bond” Berciles is married to state prosecutor ,Cecilia, and is a businessman.
They have 3 beautiful daughters- Jeane, Cherry and Janina- who are all Flight Stewardess working in Cathay Pacific, UAE airlines and Qatar Airlines respectively. Only son Elton is into computers and auto detailing.
Ogie Reyes, Jun Olis and Mandy Baria are all engineers and were past presidents of the club. Fabio Abucejo and Jun Kidlat are both retired from government service.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
The new set of officers ,who are also members of the Board of Trustees are Romualdo “Jojo” Muralla Jr.-president, Fabio Abucejo-Internal Vice- president, Jun Kidlat-External Vice- President,Dante Arguelles-Secretary. Ellery Berciles-Treasurer, Ogie Reyes –Auditor and Chessmoso-PRO. Other members of the Board are Jun Olis-Chairman Membership Committee and Mandy Baria –Chairman- Finance Committee.
Cepca is one of the oldest chess clubs in the country being founded in 1990 and has about 100 members.
The original founding members were Chessmoso. Art Ynclino, Sonny Sollano (+), Loy Minoza, Alex Tolentino, Gerry Tomakin (+), Antonio Climaco and Danny Pestano.
Aside from the regular members we also have honorary members who are also avid chess players and hold important positions both in government and the private sector. They are current Mayor Michael Rama,former Mayor Alvin Garcia, NM Matias “Bombi” Aznar (+) ,former Chairman of Southwestern University, businessman and Sportsman for this year Boojie Lim of Rose Pharmacy, businessman Kelly Uy of Cebu Progress Marketing and US based Dr. Darcy Tabotabo.
Past presidents of the club were Charter President Boy Pestano(2 consecutive terms),Alex Tolentino,Ben Dimaano, Gerry Tomakin (+),Ogie Reyes, Danny Pestano, Antonio Climaco, Manny Manzanares(2 terms and past president) , Victor Legaspina, Jun Olis(2 consecutive terms), Norway Lara, Mandy Baria, Emmanuel Matuco, Bobot Villaluna( +-2 terms).
Jojo finished a medical course in SWU (BSMT) with full scholarship because he was a varsity chess player and was also a 3rd year law student.
He worked for 15 years in the corporate world and is presently a businessman and exporter of fresh mangoes to other countries.
He is married to Nenen Saren and has a pretty and talented daughter Mary Grace.
Aside from chess he is a range officer and competitive shooter. He has participated in Australasia (level 4)competition and all over the country. He placed 2nd in the National Range Officer competition 2 years ago.
In his schooldays, he was team captain and board 1 player of the CSJ-R chess high school team and their team was champion for 4 consecutive years (1977-81) in the Cebu Catholic Schools Athletcs Association. In college his team SWU became the 1st ever team champion in the National UAAP in 1984. He was the team captain and board 3 player then.
Dante Arguelles ,the new club secretary,is not only one of the top players of the club but can also compete with the class A players of Cebu.
He has been a member since 1996 and has held various positions in the club.
He was twice Cepca Grand Slam Champion and was quarterfinalist in the Cebu Chess King several years ago. He once won a Rose Pharmacy Open and was a gold medalist in a commercial team tournament in Cebu.
Wife is Remedios and has 4 children: Pamela-who is working at Marina Bay in Singapore, Jhoanna –a real estate agent, Rochelle Michael and Dan Anthony ,a registered nurse in Gleneagle hospital in Singapore.
Ellery “Jame Bond” Berciles is married to state prosecutor ,Cecilia, and is a businessman.
They have 3 beautiful daughters- Jeane, Cherry and Janina- who are all Flight Stewardess working in Cathay Pacific, UAE airlines and Qatar Airlines respectively. Only son Elton is into computers and auto detailing.
Ogie Reyes, Jun Olis and Mandy Baria are all engineers and were past presidents of the club. Fabio Abucejo and Jun Kidlat are both retired from government service.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
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