Pestaño: Chess masters in jail

Chessmoso

Thursday, October 25, 2012

LAST Wednesday, in celebration of “National Correctional Consciousness Week” Cepca sponsored a tournament among inmates at the Mandaue City Jail. It was held upon the invitation by warden Supt. Jesse Calumpang and it was part of their outreach program.

The winners of the tourney were Eljake Buhion, followed by Edward Embarnace, Ramil Altamirano, Joselito Pasigay and Carlos Hortelano.

Jojo Muralla, Dante Arguelles and Jun Olis made a simul exhibition each after the tournament and unfortunately, there was no winner among the inmates. Assisting the tournament were inmates Tony de Guzman and Rey Dignos, who also served us dinner and helped us enjoy the karaoke entertainment that followed.

It was a memorable day for us as all the players acted like true sportsmen.

We are planning to make this a yearly affair and also include other jails in our program. Thank you, Supt. Jesse Calumpang for the invitation!

This gave me an idea to feature chess masters in jail as the topic of my article today.

Most of the information is from the website chess.com and other sources in the internet.

In 1914, Russian chess World champion Alexander Alekhine and other masters were arrested at the Mannheim, Germany Congress when World War I broke out. Alekhine was released after six weeks.

In 1921, British chess master William Winter (1898-1955) was imprisoned as he was an active member of the Communist Party. In 1932, chess master Norman Tweed Whitaker (1890-1975) was arrested for attempted extortion in a scheme to swindle $104,000 from a wealthy heiress by claiming to be in contact with the Lindbergh kidnappers. In 1937, chess problem composer Mikhail Platov was imprisoned in Russia after making a
derogatory remark about Stalin.

In March 1952, grandmaster Pal Benko was imprisoned for 16 months in a Hungarian concentration camp for trying to defect to the West.

In May 1981, Bobby Fischer was imprisoned for two days in Pasadena, California because he matched the description of a man who had committed a bank robbery in that area.

Garry Kasparov was among 170 people arrested during an anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow in 2007. Some say he was in prison for five days after being fined $40 for public order offenses.

LOCAL EVENTS. The Consolacion Chess Fiesta was held last Oct.20-21 at SM Consolacion and the winners in the Open category were Allan Salientes, followed by new Cepca member Capt.Rey Flores and Michael Silvederio.

Colonnade Open. This NCFP rated competition is open to all rated and non-rated players and is sponsored by Rose Pharmacy, Colonnade Mall, Julies Bakeshop and organized by Cepca. Format is seven rounds Swiss and time control is 40 minutes per player plus 5- second increments and 45 minutes with no increment.

Three rounds will be played tomorrow and the final four rounds on Sunday at Colonnade Mall starting at 10 a.m.

The champion will take home P5,000 plus trophy, while the second to fourth placers will get P3,000, P2,000 and P1,000, respectively. The fifth to 12th placers will receive P500 each. There will also be special prizes of P500 each for top performers in Ladies, Kiddies, Juniors and Seniors.

Registration is P75 for the Ladies and Kiddies players and P100 for the Juniors division and P200 for the rest.

For more information contact Marvin Ruelan (09267352951),Jojo Muralla (09224762566), Jun Olis (92352629542) and me.

CPAs vs ATTYs. Today at 2 p.m. at Deep Blue in SM City, the accountants and lawyers will meet in a 10-board match to find out who are the better chess players.

The accountants partially include Drigo Ababat, Felix Balbona, Carlo Maraat, Tomas Riveral, Rafael Perez, Nestor Encarnado and Reneir Mora.

The lawyers partial list includes Jongjong Melendez, Boy Tumulak, Ben Harayo and Jorge Gabriente.

(boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)

Pestaño: Is Wesley So migrating to Canada?

Chessmoso

Thursday, October 18, 2012

WESLEY So is the best player the Philippines has ever produced.

So became a grandmaster at 14 years, one month and 28 days, making him the eighth youngest in the history of chess. In October 2008, he was rated 2610 and thus became the youngest player to become a Super GM at that time.

So was born in Bacoor, Cavite on Oct. 9, 1993 to William and Eleanor So, who are both accountants. His father taught him to play chess at age six. He started to compete in junior active chess tournaments at a very early age.

Now there is a possibility that Wesley might migrate to Canada and the Philippines could lose a potential world champion. Remember WIM Arianne Caoli who migrated to Australia several years ago? She played board 1 for Australia in the last Olympiad in Istanbul.

In fact, Wesley’s family has been living in Canada for two years now and being a minor, Wesley was surely also approved as immigrant.

He has been in Canada for some time and won both the Toronto Invitational and the Quebec Open recently.

Right now, Wesley is studying as a freshman-scholar at Webster University in St. Louis under the Spice (Susan Polgar Institute of Chess Excellence) program.

The Spice Cup 2012 tournament is now ongoing and the players are (all GMs): Le Quang Liem, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Ding Liren, Csaba Balogh, Wesley So and Georg Meier.

Only four games out of 15 have been decisive and after five rounds Wesley and Maxime are leading with 3 points.

tournaments. The monthly winner of the Lapu-Lapu Chess Club last weekend was 15-year-old Ariel Abellana. He was followed by Rolando Torres, Aldwin Daculan, Romeo Resuera and Giovanni Borongan.

Also last weekend, the J Mall Centre Open Tournament was won by Rommel Ganzon Carlos Moreno via tiebreak. Joel Pacuribot got third place, while Michael Pagaran and Bryle Arillano got the fourth and fifth places.

Cepca’s October champion was new member Dr. Ben Rodriguez, while Jojo Muralla and Mike Banebane got second and third places.

I understand that a new member, Professor Ronald Galindo of USC, will be donating a custom-built trophy for Cepca’s grand final winner. Many thanks Ronald!

Coming tournaments. There will be a tournament tomorrow at 10 a.m. in SM Consolacion exclusive for residents. There were will be an open division and an elementary and secondary categories. The event is part of the town’s fiesta celebration and registration is free in all categories. Format is seven rounds Swiss with time control of 25 minutes.

Cepca will be sponsoring again a tournament among inmates at the Mandaue City Jail upon the invitation of warden Jesse Calumpang on Oct. 24 starting at 1 p.m.

The inmates will be celebrating their National Correctional Consciousness week.

Take note of the Colonnade Open Tournament sponsored by Cepca on Oct. 27-28. Format will be active and may either be 7 or 9 rounds, depending on the number of participants.

(boypestano@gmail.com.www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)

Pestaño: Chess problems and puzzles

Chessmoso

Thursday, October 4, 2012

CHESS puzzles or problems are an integral part of Chessmoso. We’ve been at it for the past eight years, although with some brief interruption.

Like music, poetry or painting, not everybody can compose a chess problem. It is a gift endowed on a selected few. Even if you are a grandmaster, you cannot create masterpieces that those gifted can do in a matter of hours.

We exercise to keep our bodies fit like going to the gym or running which is quite popular now. Solving chess puzzles or problems is fun and keeps our minds agile. It gives a peculiar feeling of satisfaction when you finally find the key move.

Every chess player knows about the Polgar sisters. Judit is the strongest lady player of all time while Susan is a five-time women’s world champion and Sofia is a strong International Master.

They were trained since early childhood to play chess and part of their training was solving a chess puzzle or problem every day.

Solving chess puzzles is a common technique to train the beginner. Although it is unlikely that the same position will occur in a game, the recognition of certain patterns can help . As long as you have the desire to try to find the solution yourself without asking others to help you, you can become a better player.

There is a difference between a chess problem and a chess puzzle. A puzzle comes as a result of normal play or with some slight improvements, while a chess problem is composed .

All of the problems that are featured in Chessmoso are pure mates in two or three moves. Those with four moves or over are difficult to solve. Other types like “white to move and win” are not appealing to the general public.

Other types of chess puzzles are helpmates, where black moves first and cooperates with white wherein black’s king is mated in a certain number of moves. Another one is self-mate, where white moves first and forces black to checkmate white also in a certain number of moves.

A chess problem’s key move must be unique. If there are more than one key move, then the puzzle is said to be defective or in chess parlance “cooked.”

The key move of the solution to the puzzle should not be obvious. Obvious moves such as checks, captures, and moves which restrict the movement of the black king are not good puzzles.

Other conditions are that there should be no promoted pawns in the initial position and every piece on the board should serve a purpose, either to help in the solution, or to exclude other solutions.

Great chess problems composers are Samuel Lloyd,Miroslav Havel, Comins Mansfield, Godfrey Heathcote, Michael lipton, Frederick Gamage, Alain White, William Shinkman,etc. There are a lot more who are just as good.

Pinoys shine in Malaysia. The Malaysian chess festival was recently held in Kuala Lumpur and featured three sections.

The top IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Chess Tournament, with 176 players from 14 countries, was won by GM Joey Antonio Jr. while The Astro Rapid Open Team Championship had 66 teams participating and was won by Quezon City.

Compatriot Ronaldo Nolte finished with 9/10,the same score as Joey but the latter won the gold medal on better tiebreak.

Cebuanos who played were Richard Bitoon, who finished just a half point behind Nolte amd Joey with 8.5, and Eden Diano with 8 points.

Picpa. The Philippines Institute of Certified Public Accountants recently sponsored a 4-players team tournament at J Centre Mall in Mandaue City.

Eight teams played and the team Balbona—composed of family members Felix Shaun, Jessa and dad Felix and ably anchored by Merben Roque--won the top prize of P10,000 plus trophy. Organizer was CPA-Lawyer Rheneir P. Mora.

(boypestano@gmail.com, www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)