Cepca through the years

By Frank "Boy" Pestaño
Chessmoso

I HAVE been writing about Cepca tournaments and members ever since the start of this column and it’s about time the chess playing readers learn more about this club. Cepca is the abbreviation of Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association Inc. and is duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, non-profit corporation. Its primary purpose is to serve the chess needs of its members and to promote the game in Cebu.

The club is affiliated with the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and has been in existence since 1990. It had its first meeting in the conference room of MCWD about middle of June that year and the founders were this writer, Art Ynclino, Sonny Sollano, Gerry Tomakin, Alex Tolentino, Nicnic Climaco and Danny Pestaño.

That year, the Interzonal of Fide was held in Manila and our initial plan was to invite some of the players to come to Cebu to perform simultaneous exhibitions. Since we were not fully organized yet, we approached the Cebu Lakandula Lions to help us since its president then was my brother, Danny.

Our initial plan was to invite Victor Korchnoi of Switzerland, Nigel Short and Eugene Torre.

However, we found out that our budget was not enough to accommodate these gentlemen, so those who came over instead were Eugene Torre, Jaime Sunye-Neto of Brazil, Walter Arencibia of Cuba and Carlos Juarez of Guatemala. It was quite a sensation in Cebu then and after that our membership exploded.

Among the new members were Loy Miñoza, Babes Andales, Damaso Uy, Rudy Aguinaldo, Bob Inocian, Tony Cornejo, Dongdong Almario and Serge Borres. We then held our first tournament and new members who joined were Bill Laviste, Edmund Suralta, Lito Pielago and Danish national Malte Lemvigfog.

Through the first two years, we reached a membership of over 60 and joined the Sinulog festival in all the categories: float, free interpretation and higante.

New members worth mentioning here were Rene Tolo, who is now in the US, and Jun Olis. We also sponsored the premiere showing of Terminator 2, Judgment Day, in partnership with the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers, Cebu Chapter.

GM TOURNAMENT. However the most important accomplishment of our club was the holding of the First Cebu Grandmasters Tournament in 1992 in association with Boojie Lim of the Cebu Chess Federation, then Fide President Florencio Campomanes and the Cebu Inter-Family Youth Association headed by Henry Uy-Hehiong and Kelly Uy. The foreign grandmasters who came over to Cebu were Ian Rogers of Australia, Dibyendo Barua of India, Ye Rongguang of China and Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh. They were joined by Philippine players Rogelio Antonio, Fernie Donguines, Banjo Barcenilla, Barlo Nadera and Rico Mascariñas.

Active members of the club worth mentioning through these years are British national Graham Maitland-Smith, Italian national Stelvio Guglielmi, Mer Fernandez, Bong San Pascual, Jun Catayas, Ely Berciles, Arwin Barrios, Rene Casia, El Labunog, Fred Sandalo, Norwegian Roar Sorensen, Pabs Argamosa, Andy Aquino and Vic Nator.

Past presidents of the club are this writer, Alex Tolentino, Gerry Tomakin, Ben Dimaano, Danny Pestaño, Ogie Reyes, Nicnic Climaco, Manny Manzanares, Norway Lara, Vic Legaspina, Bobot Villaluna and current president Jun Olis.

As of now Cepca has over 100 members although some are abroad, some are inactive, and a few have passed away like Migs Enriquez, Butch Loyola and the person nearest to our hearts, Sonny Sollano. If I were to name five top members of the club, Sonny would certainly be among them.

HUMOR. Here are some moments that you should sense danger while playing chess: 1) There has been a change in pawn structure. Your opponent has eight and you don’t have any; 2) your opponent begins to throw pawns at your eyes; 3) you have a won position but your opponent has a gun; 4) before the game begins you notice your opponent’s initials are “GM”; 5) your draw offer sends all the people watching your game into uncontrollable laughter.