EIGHT of the top grandmasters on the planet have committed to join a three-tournament circuit, christened the “Grand Chess Tour.” The total prize money is $1,050,000 – a fairly huge sum even for top-level chess.
Former world chess hampion Garry Kasparov was instrumental in making the tour happen.
The three tournaments that will make up the tour are Norway Chess, the Sinquefield Cup (held at the club in St. Louis), and the London Chess Classic. Those who have signed up initially are Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Fabiano Caruana (Italy), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Viswanathan Anand (India), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Anish Giri (Netherlands), and Hikaru Nakamura (USA.
It was not clarified why Wesley So is out. An informally designated media liaison in Manila said in a Facebook post that Wesley was invited but could not make it due to prior commitments which are in conflict with the schedule of some of the legs of the tour.
Personally this is a mistake if indeed Wesley declined. Now he is definitely out of the tour as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France was just recently added as the ninth and last player in the Super Grand Tour starting June 15. A wildcard will fill out the 10-person field, normally coming from the country where the leg is held. It’s possible though that Wesley may be the wild card in the Sinquefield Cup.
New members. Cepca had three new members who joined our April tournament at Pado Beach Resort in Marigondon.. They are Sammy Limquiaco Jr., Elmer Odango and Rafael Bensi Jr. Incidentally Elmer was the champion in the B group.
Sammy is an electrical engineering graduate of USC and passed the board exams for Assistant Electrical Engineers. He was a production engineer of a wire and cable company then joined the marketing and sales of a multinational oil company. He is a widower with four kids who finished their schooling and professions.
As a retiree, he is presently venturing in the extraction and processing of aggregate products based here in Cebu.
At a very young age, he was fond of watching people play chess. Constant practice and a little of text book stuffs made him one of the good players in school and at work. His interest on the game is back and prompted him to join Cepca.
Elmer is an AB Economics graduate of of USJR and BS Marine Transportation graduate of Mats College,Davao City. He is a songwriter and member of Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. He was an OFW as a professional singer.
He loves to read and analyze the life and chess games of world champions such as Bobby Fischer, Tal, Kasparov and Carlsen.
Raffy is a 1989 graduate of Associate in Marine Engineering at Cebu Central Colleges now UC. He was connected with William Lines Inc and Cimecor ( Cebu Industrial Marine Engineering Corporation) .
He started work on Schlumberger as a contractor under Monsoon Maritime Services, Phils. from July 2006 up to December 2012 on a 10-week, on 5-weeks Off rotation.
On Feb. 11, 2013 he became a direct hire on the same company with a five weeks on, five weeks off rotation up to present.
He started to play chess in high school and taught all his children to play at very young ages. He even hired a trainer and spent good money for their travel expenses in various tournaments because of his love of the game.
Three of his children played multiple times in the Cviraa---Raffy Glen, Lefa Glier and Adelyn. Lefa Glier qualified for the Palaro this year. Edelyn also almost qualified and only needed a draw in her last game but lost.
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