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)