Solitary gold in Seag; Sinulog

Back in the 60s and up to the 80s the Philippines was considered a class A chess playing country. In fact, the western press dubbed us as the “Russians of Asia”. China and India were way behind us and Vietnam was unheard of, being in a state of war in the 60s and early 70s.

Now, the Men World Champion is from India, Viswanathan Anand and the Women Champion is from China,Hou Yifan.

Vietnam has dominated Asean chess for more than a decade now including the just concluded 26th Southeast Asian games in Indonesia, The best player in Southeast Asia is Le Quang Liem (2717) of Vietnam who is rated way above pinoy sensation Wesley So (2659).

Wesley So swept his all matches to pocket the country's lone gold medal at the conclusion of the 26th Southeast Asian Games. Over-all, the Philippine chess team bagged 7 medals. 9 gold medals were at stake.

Here's the complete details of the performance of the Philippine team: Men Blitz (GM Wesley So, Gold Medal), Men Blitz (GM Mark Paragua, Bronze), Men Standard (GM Wesley So, Silver), Women Standard (WFM Rulp Ylem Jose, Silver), Blindfold (GM John Paul Gomez, Silver), Blindfold (GM Darwin Laylo, Bronze) and Mixed pair (GM Oliver Barbosa and WIM Catherine Perena, Silver).

.In the other side of the world, in Tirana Albania, the FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship Match between the current World Champion Hou Yifan of China and her challenger, Koneru Humpy of India, is now more than halfway thru.

After 6 games Yifan is leading 4-2 after winning the 3rd and 6th game and drawing the rest. She has virtually retained her title with just 4 games left and will pocket 120,000 Euro, a sizable fortune.

Sinulog The Cebu City government in cooperation with the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) will hold an Open chess team tournament during the Sinulog season next year, January 7 and 8.

Format will be 7 rounds Swiss with a time control of one hour per player. Each team will have 4 regular members and an alternate. Total prize fund is P75,000 and the champion will get P25,000 plus trophy.

Registration is P1,200.

There will only be one class A or titled player per team and all lineups will be subject to approval to ensure a balanced competition. Venue will be announced later.

KC Morala, our future chess columnist and an excellent kiddie chess player emailed this report.

“Mabolo Elementary School won the champion trophy in the 3rd Kiddie Chess Interschool Tournament held in Mez 2 last November 19, 2011.

the Mabolinian Stars were ahead 6.5 points over second placer Canduman Elementary School while Banilad was third.

A total of 140 students took part ranging from Grade 1 to 6 . Participating schools were Bacayan, Balamban Central, Balamban II, Banilad, Basak, Canduman, Casili, Gabi, Lagtang, Mabolo, Subangdaku, Talamban, Tawason, and Yati.

The tournament was made possible through the efforts of the AboitizLand Chess Clinic. “

The Tal Memorial has started in Moscow and is remarkable in more ways than one. It is the highest rated 10-player round robin tournament in chess history

The players are Magnus Carlsen (2823, Norway), Vishy Anand (2817, India), Levon Aronian (2802, Armenia), Vladimir Kramnik (2800, Russia), Vassily Ivanchuk (2775, Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (2763, Russia), Hikaru Nakamura (2753, USA), Peter Svidler (2755, Russia), Boris Gelfand (2746, Israel) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (2730, Russia).

Calling all Cepcans! We will have a roll call tournament this Sunday ,November 27, at Deep Blue SM City. Games start at 1 pm and format is 5 rounds Swiss .Registration is P200. Participation is a must.
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