Pestaño: A chess playing dog?

By Frank 'Boy' Pestaño

Chessmoso

Thursday, October 10, 2013

WHAT? Believe it or not, a dog was once entered in a chess tournament in London. This is a true story, so read on.

Before the war, the most prestigious chess club in England was the Brighton Chess Club. One of its members was an aristocratic lady, Mrs. Sidney, who always brought
with her her inseparable companion,a dog affectionately called Mick.

The club members met and played in the elite Royal Pavilion built for George IV while he was Prince Regent and one of the strict rules was that no dogs were allowed.

The club secretary, fearful of the old crone’s wrath, pretended not to notice her canine companion and tolerated its presence. The other members of the club also did not object.

However, a new secretary was appointed and insisted to Mrs. Sidney that her dog must not be allowed to enter the club’s premises. There was an exchange of harsh words from the old crone and eventually a compromise was agreed upon. Mick was to be elected a full member but Mrs. Sidney must pay the membership fee and annual dues.

Sometime later, the club was scheduled to play a friendly match with another chess club. The team captain noticing a new member on the list, Mr. Mick, decided to include
him in the team to give him some match experience.

The result? Mr. Mick lost on time and the story goes that his opponent was an expert on the Collie System, not knowing that his opponent would be a dog. This true story comes from the book, the Complete Chess Addict.

Battle of GMs. John Paul Gomez and Woman International Master elect Janelle Mae Frayna dominated their divisions in the 2013 Battle of Grandmasters which ended last Monday at the Philippine Sports Commission Conference Room.

Here are the final scores: Men’s division. Gomez, Barbosa (30 points), Laylo (26.5); Antonio (25.5), Barcenilla (22.5), Paragua (21.5), Pimentel, Bitoon, E. Senador, Torre (18), Nava, Salcedo III (16.5), Reyes (7.5), Habla (4.5).

WOMEN: Frayna (34.5), Enriquez, Perena (27.0), Mendoza (25.5), Docena, Mejia (21.0), Mendoza, A. Lozano, L. Bermundo, B. Galas (18.0), R. Jose (15.0), Romero (11.0), Cabrera (4.5).

Gomez and Barbosa split the combined prize of P240,000 for the top two finishers. Laylo snared P75,000, while Antonio won P50,000 and Barcenilla P40,000.

In the women’s play, Frayna went home with the top prize of P50,000.

The event used the Torre-Pichay scoring system, a method formulated by Torre and National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president/chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay, Jr. where a win is equivalent to three points, a draw is 1.5 points and a loss is zero. A stalemate is 2.0 for the last player to make a move and 1.0 to the player who can no longer make a move.

Cepca tournament. One of the biggest tournaments for this year is the 23rd cepca Open, on Oct. 12 and 13 at SM City in the Entertainment Center at 1030 a.m.

Format will be nine rounds Swiss with a time control of 25 minutes plus 5-second increments. Registration is P200 and P100 for kiddies and ladies at site.

Total prizes is P32,000 with P7,000 going to the champion plus trophy. There will be prizes up to 20th place.

Special prizes will also be awarded to the top 3 winners in the Senior category (50 above),Juniors (16-20), Ladies,Kiddies (15 below) and children (10 years and under) and also the top three Cepca members.

Major sponsors are Boojie Lim of Rose Pharmacy, Julie`s Bakeshop ,Jemar Engineering services and a host of Cepca members.

For more info please contact: Marvin Ruelan(09267352951) or Jun Olis (09232629642).

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