Pestaño: Fide bars Kasparov and Leong

GARY KASPAROV and Ignatius Leong are both banned for a period of two years from holding any office or position within FIDE, including its member federations, continental associations or any other affiliated international organisations, as well as participating in any FIDE meeting as delegate, proxy-holder or other representative of a FIDE member,” read the statement published on the Fide website.

This ban is effective from Oct. 21 until Oct. 20, 2017.

The Ethics Commission, at the FIDE Congress in Abu Dhabi, earlier said that Kasparov and Leong were found guilty of breaching the Fide Code of ethics for their conduct during the 2014 Fide presidential elections.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is a controversial figure for claiming that he was abducted by aliens in 1997 in a flying saucer and taken to a distant planet. I believe this story on his abduction though being a member of the Philippine Astronomical Society and a firm believer of intelligent aliens, some of whom are billions of years more advanced..

I have been a close observer of chess for a long time. My estimate is that Kirsan has spent over $50 million of his personal money on chess and that’s a lot of loves and of course there’s a saying, “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken!”

Before last year’s presidential poll, Kasparov, bidding for the office, and then General Secretary Ignatius Leong made a deal in which Kasparov paid Leong $500,000.

Leong promised Kasparov that he would get ten plus one votes of Asian chess federations for the $500,000. One of those who voted for Kasparov was Philippines’ Prospero Pichay who was in turn promised the presidency of the Asian Chess Federation.

The Kasparov Chess Foundation and Leong’s company, Asian Chess Academy, were also supposed to establish a new organization, Kasparov Chess Foundation Asia, which was supposed to transfer $1 million to Leong’s firm in case of Kasparov’s victory.

The FIDE Ethics Commission consists of Francois Strydom of South Africa (Chairman), Ion-Serban Dobronauteanu (Romania), Pedro Dominguez Brito (Dominican Republic), Willy Iclicki (Liechtenstein) and Rajesh Hari Joshi (Nepal).

According to the Kasparov team though, the $500,000 would not be granted to Leong personally but to the Kasparov Chess Foundation Asia for “promoting and encouraging the study and play of chess in East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region, as a means of intellectual development.”

Milo. Cleo Ilaras (cleo.ilars@gmail.com) sent me this report: “The University of San Carlos chess team, dominated the 2015 Milo Little Olympics National Finals in Laguna last Oct 23-25.

The USC Secondary Boys tallied a total of 8.5 points in the round robin format event and took the top spot, while the Lady Warriors marched to their victory in the secondary girls division with 7.5 points.

The USC team elementary girls and boys also won their events. The secondary boys team is composed of Andrew Balbona, Ryan Pacres,Jeffu Dorog, Arvert Cadiz, Justin Bajo, Kirk Morala and Andrie Cadiz, while the members of the girls team are Jeremy Bajo, Laila Nadera, Glysen Derotas and Cherry Caballes. The members of the elementary boys team are Dwayne Abella, Raniel Perandos, Jave Peteros, Gyles Derotas, and Justin Joseph, and the members of the elementary girls team are Krisen Sanchez, Angel Bagano, Jasia Dorog and Althea Bagano.

Perandos, Bagano, Dorog and Nadera received the Most Outstanding Athletes (MOA) award and got P10,000 and a one-year supply of Milo.

Pestaño: Two great one-on-one chess matches

THE Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis will be sponsoring a match between the two best players of America today, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, on Nov. 12 to 15.

As of the October live ratings, Nakamura is No. 4 with 2797, while Caruana is no.5 with 2795 in classical time controls. However, the format of the match is rapid and blitz. In rapid and blitz, Nakamura is rated 2850 and 2887 respectively, while Caruana is rated 2829 and a lowly 2665 in blitz. So, Nakamura is favored to win the match.

Format of the match will be four Fischer random chess at a time control of 20 minutes plus 10- second increments, four rapid games at 15 minutes plus 10-second increments and eight blitz games at three minutes plus two-second increments. They also announced “more to come” but that phrase remains ambiguous. All games will count equally, using the regular scoring system, making this a sort of “extended Death Match.”

The staggering prize fund is a whopping $100,000! The winner takes $60,000 while the loser will still grab $40,000.

They have played a number of classical games, with 75 percent ending in draws but with Nakamura holding a definitive five to one lead in won games. In faster time controls, Nakamura has a decisive lead with nine wins and only 2 losses and a single draw.

Also playing at the same time and place will be a “battle of the sexes” between Hou Yifan and Parimarjan Negi.

Hou (born Feb. 27, 1994) is rated 2676 and is a former chess prodigy and a former two-time women’s world chess champion, the youngest ever to win the title, as well as the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of Grandmaster. She just won the Monaco Grand Prix this week for women by an amazing two points. This is like winning a basketball game by 40 points.

Parimarjan Negi (born Feb. 9, 1993) is a grandmaster from India. On July 1, 2006, at the age of 13 years and 142 days (13 years, 4 months, and 20 days), he became the second-youngest GM ever, second only to Sergey Karjakin, when he earned his third and final GM norm at the Chelyabinsk Region Superfinal Championship at Satka in Russia. His rating as of Oct. 15, 2015 is 2664.

Their match will be worth $50,000, with the winner’s share again at 60 percent ($30,000). They’ve played several times, with Negi holding a narrow 2-1 edge in decisive games.

Marie Ernestine. Gabriel Karlo Tio topped the 1st Marie Ernestine School Tournament after securing four points and a draw in a five-round Swiss Tournament held in Handuraw Pizza Gorordo last Oct. 17.

Fellow sixth graders Kyle Matthew Dizon, Gayle Christine Macan and fifth grader Armando Angelo Ybañez each garnered four points and finished second, third and fourth spot respectively. Christian Elijah Ybañez of Grade 4 won fifth place.

The other players, Dominice Pegarido, Gabriela Marie Carvajal, Jacob Jacinto Tan, Yoo Do Young, Shaniasheen Newman, Simone Kyle Pono, Noelle Roa, Therese Marie Lagda, Yoo Su “Steve” Young, Avery Marc Tudtud, Al-Hamsha Khalif Macagaan, Elloiza Nielryn Borgonia, Ai Michaela Nakayama and Gustavo Manuel Larrañaga, went home with school supplies.

The tournament was organized by school trainer Therese Dela Torre and sponsored by Handuraw, Jojo Muralla, Atty. Jennoh Tequilo and Engr. Marvynne Guardiana and Cepca. Assisting Therese was Peterson Sia, Ateneo chess instructor.

CEPCA. A reminder to all Cepca members, awardees and invited guests to attend our Silver Anniversary party at the Sacred Heart Center social hall along D.Jakosalem St tomorrow at 6 pm.

Pestaño: Major chess tournaments

CHESS is alive like never before. Four major tournaments are going on almost at the same time—the Millionaire Chess, Pokerstars, the World Rapid and Blitz Championship plus the Grand Prix for women.

For other players, the GMs and IMs who don’t want to compete with the elite players and have some chance to earn good money, there are plenty of other tournaments to choose from—the Mikhail Chigorin Memorial 2015, the European Universities Chess Championships, Dubai Chess, Georgian Club Championship 2015, Poikovsky Chess 2015 and a few more.

Also showing at major cities worldwide to fully packed movie houses is Pawn Sacrifice , a Tobey Maguire movie about the life of Bobby Fischer, the most loved, and later the most-hated American, in history.

Millionaire Chess is what it is--the richest open tournament in history which just concluded in Las Vegas with a total of $1 million in prizes. Wesley So won the first edition last year.

The Open section had a $100,000 top prize. Even the 1400U winner got $38,000 and the 1200U another $20,000. There were prizes for the fifth to 10th finishers in each section of the tournament, which had more than 600 participants.

US-based Cepca member Josito Dondon played in the 2200U category and scored a respectable four points.

The format in the Open section was seven rounds with the top four advancing to a knockout system. After seven rounds the top three qualifiers were Aleks Lenderman, Le Quang Liem and Yu Yangyi. Tied at fourth place were nine players, including Wesley and Hikaru Nakamura. After blitz tiebreaks among the nine players Nakamura snared the last slot.

Nakamura went on to defeat Yu Yangyi and finally Liem to win the $100,000 top prize.

Pokerstars, in recognition of a great number of chess players who have also turned to poker, is sponsoring a second chess tournament at their Isle of Man headquarters. At any one time 25,000 to 30,000 tables are being played in their website.

The format was a nine-round open tournament and the participants were headed by Michael Adams (2742), Pentala Harikrishna (2737), David Howell (2705), Laurent Fressinet (2702), Arkadij Naiditsch (2684), Gabriel Sargissian (2679), Nigel Short (2678), Julio Granda Zuniga (2667), Sergei Movsesian (2658) and Daniel Fridman (2642).

Pentala Harikrishna took the winner’s trophy after edging Laurent Fressinet and Gabriel Sargissian on tie-break.
The World rapid championship, with 184 GMs, was played over 15 rounds in Berlin with five rounds slated on each day. Magnus Carlsen won the title after winning the blitz format of 21 rounds.

The first leg of the women’s Grand Prix Series 2015-2016 took place in Monte Carlo, from Oct. 2 until today. The Prize fund is 60, 000 Euros, with 10, 000 for the winner.

The line-up includes: Yifan Hou (2671), Humpy Koneru (2578), Nana Dzagnidze (2573), Anna Muzychuk (2549), Alexandra Kosteniuk (2530), Mariya Muzychuk (2528) ,Pia Cramling (2513), Antoaneta Stefanova (2500), Natalia Zhukova (2482), Natalija Pogonina (2445), Almira Skripchenko (2441) and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (2397). Yifan is leading with 7.5 points after 9 rounds.

SCHOOL CHESS. The Marie Ernestine- chess tournament for their Talamban campus will be held at Handuraw Gorordo tomorrow starting at 2 p.m. It will be conducted by their school chess instructor Therese dela Torre. The sponsors are Engr. Marvynne Guardiana, Atty. Jennoh Tequillo, Jojo Muralla, Handuraw and Cepca.

The Cepca October tournament follows on Sunday, also at Handuraw, at 2 p.m. Children of Cepca members and lady varsity players can also play.

Pestaño: Karjakin wins weirdest World Cup

THE 2015 FIDE World Chess Cup came to an end in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku the other day with 128 of the world’s best players, including five former world champions, joining the major tournament considered by experts as the oddest world cup ever.

Eight of the top 10 players, most of them with Elo 2800s ratings, were eliminated in earlier rounds including our Wesley So. The surprise finalists were Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler.

Karjakin, became the youngest ever player in history to become grandmaster at 12 and prior to the world cup, was at No.11 in the world with a rating of 2762, while Svidler was at No. 26 and had a rating of 2726.

The match, a combination of classical, rapid and blitz games, delivered amazing moves and unexpected blunders. All 10 games were decisive with no draws. Svidler won the first two classical games and needed only a draw in the remaining two games to win. I think it was all a question of nerves why Karjakin came back from the grave.

Svidler expressed regrets that he was unable to win the match after having had many opportunities to do so. “I didn’t do it, I don’t deserve it,” he said.

Summarizing the final bout, Karjakin said that the match was any man’s game and that it could end with either player on top.

“Once it was time to tiebreak, me and Svidler were exhausted. Therefore, the game could go fast in any scenario. In the end, I won the World Cup and I think this is the best achievement of my career,” he said.

Karjakin earned $120,000, while Svidler got $80,000. The usual practice of Fide getting 20 percent of the prizes was paid for by the organizers.

Cepca. In celebration of the Club’s silver anniversary this year, we had a grand tournament last month at SM City that was widely accepted as the most prestigious and biggest this year.

On Oct. 24 at 6 p.m.,we will be holding a grand party at the Sacred Heart Center Social hall along Jakosalem St. This will also serve as our annual general membership meeting and election of new officers and induction of new members.

The Club will also recognize the founders and past presidents of the club, honorary members, selected members and some local media practitioners.

The awardees are past presidents Frank “Boy” Pestano (founder), Alex Tolentino (founder), Gerry Tomakin (founder–posthumous) Ben Dimaano, Danny Pestano (founder-posthumous), Nicnic Climaco (founder), Norway Lara, Mandy Baria, Manny Manzanares,Jojo Muralla and Jun Olis.

Honorary members are Bombi Aznar (posthumous), Benjamin Lim, Kelly Uy, Darcy Tabotabo, former mayor Alvin Garcia, Andrew Aznar and Mayor Mike Rama.

Outstanding members are Art Ynclino (founder-posthumous), Sonny Sollano (founder-posthumous), Luis Minoza (founder-posthumous, Susan Itaas and Josito Dondon.

Our next monthly tournament is on Oct. 18 18th at the ground floor of Handuraw Gorordo at 2 p.m.. Children of Cepca members are also invited including ladies varsity players.

Marie Ernestine. The first and only school in the Philippines that includes chess in their curriculum will hold a tournament at Handuraw Gorordo on Oct 17 at 2 p.m.. Participants will be players from Grades 3 to 6 exclusive from their Talamban Campus. They have undergone specialized chess instruction for the past four months.

Prizes will be minor home appliances with a trophy going to the champion. Cepca lady member Therese dela Torre, who is also the school’s chess instructor, will conduct the tournmanet.

Pestaño: Legendary composers of chess problems

SOMETIME ago, I wrote about chess problems as an inherent part of Chessmoso. This time, I will write about the composers of chess problems.

Just like music and poetry, chess problem composers are a unique breed. Even grandmasters cannot create masterpieces, which come naturally to these people.

Composers are also given titles—International, Grandmaster, International Master, Fide Master and National Master.

Edith Helen Baird (1859-1924), born Winter Wood, was the most famous female chess composer. She published her problems using the name “Mrs W. J. Baird.” She composed over 2,000 problems. In 1902 she wrote 700 chess problems.

Vladimir Bron (1909-1985) was a top Soviet chess composer. In 1969, he wrote Selected Studies and Problems. He won 31 first prizes in composing tourneys and was awarded the International Master title for chess composition in 1966 and the Grandmaster Composer title in 1975.

André Chéron (1895–1980) is a French chess player, endgame theorist, and a composer of endgame studies. He was named a Fide International Master of Chess Composition in 1959, the first year the title was awarded.

Eugene Cook (1830-1915) was the first American chess composer of note and personally composed over 800 chess problems.

Fadil Abdurahmanovic (1939- ) is a Grandmaster of chess composition (1992). His best work is in the form of helpmates and fairy problems.

Thomas Rayner Dawson (1889-1951) was considered the father of Fairy Chess. He composed over 5,000 fairy chess problems and over 6,500 problems total. He invented the Nightrider and the Grasshopper.

Vincent Lanius Eaton (1915-1962) was one of America’s greatest chess composers. He graduated from Harvard at the age of 18. He worked as a scholar at the Library of Congress from 1939 to 1941 and was the Problem Editor of Chess Review.

Henrikh Kasparian (1910-1995) was one of the first Grandmasters of Chess Compositions. In 1980, he wrote Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies. Cyril Kipping (1891-1964) also composed over 7,000 chess problems, while another noted one is Karl Leonid Kubbel (1891-1942), who was a Russian endgame composer and problemist. He composed over 500 endgame studies.

Sam Loyd (1841-1911) was known as the Puzzle King. He produced over 10,000 puzzles in his lifetime, often with interesting themes. He was the most famous American chess composer. At his peak, Loyd was one of the best chess players in the US and was ranked 15th in the world, according to chessmetrics.com.

Comins Mansfield (1896-1984) composed chess problems for 72 years. In 1972, he was one of the first four to be awarded the title of Grandmaster for Chess Compositions. The other three were Genrikh Kasparyan, Lew Koschinsky, and Eeltje Visserman.

William Meredith (1835-1903) was a problem composer. A problem which there are 8 to 12 men on the board is called a Meredith.

Another famous composer was Joseph Peckover (1897-1982) in the early 20th century. He was born in England but migrated to New York in 1921. He was the endgame editor for the American Chess Quarterly from 1961 to 1965 and composed over 100 endings.

William Shinkman (1847-1933) was one of America’s greatest chess composers. He published over 3,500 problems.

Alexei Troitsky (1866-1942) is regarded as the greatest chess composer of endgame studies. He has over 1,000 studies to his credit.

Alain Campbell White (1880-1951) was an American problem composer and chess patron. For 32 years, from 1905 to 1936, he published the Christmas series of chess problems. He did more than any other player to promote worldwide interest in chess problems.