Kiddies tournaments in barangays

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

THE top three leaders on chess in Cebu namely NM Bombi Aznar, Boojie Lim as represented by Marvin Ruelan and The Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) had a fruitful meeting last Monday at Handuraw Café in Mabolo to promote chess development of children thru the holding of tournaments on the barangay level.

It was agreed that there will be a series of tournaments in the barangay to determine their representatives to the Inter-barangay grand team tournament which will be held on January 13 and 14 as part of the Sinulog celebration.

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Members of Cepca will be responsible for the holding of tournaments on the barangay level in coordination with the Barangay captain and other leaders. The tournament is open to those born in 1992 and later and 6 players will form the barangay team, 4 regulars and 2 alternates.

It is expected that a continuing series of chess tournaments and clinics will be in place next year to further develop our young talents.

The Philippines has been left behind not only in Asia but even in the Asean region in the development of chess. There is a big gap between the current top players and the new ones. We need to train and identify new talents. The last Southeast Asian games showed that Vietnam is now way ahead of the Philippines and in fact won all the gold medals at stake. It was a shameful performance and a painful wake-up call.

I am calling the attention of barangay leaders to get in touch with me at 233-8678 if they are interested to hold a kiddies tournament in their respective territories.

Cepca news. The last of the monthly tournaments was held last Nov. 19 at the Bibo Chess club and the qualifier is Nikki Estenor. He will join the following monthly winners for the Grand Finals which will be held at Stella Maris on December 10: Dante Arguelles (January), Jun Olis (February), Maggi Dionson (March), Percival Fiel (April), Jongjong Melendez (May) , Miguel Banebane( June), Fabio Abucejo (July), Joe Atillo (August) , Mandy Baria (September), Ramon Pa-ngilinan (October) and Bombi Aznar (honorary member and seeded to the finals).

Mandy Baria has also decided that our Christmas party will coincide with the grand finals on Dec. 10. For those who did not qualify to the finals, there will be a side tournament to be participated also by selected kiddie players.

Dec. 10 will also be a triple celebration as the new officers and members of the board of trustees for 2007 will be inducted into office. The new officers are Emanuel Matuco-president, Dante Arguelles –vice president, internal, Percival Fiel-vice president , external, Jun Olis –secretary/ pro, Jeffrey Solis –treasurer, Felix Balbona- auditor, Mandy Baria-chairman, tournaments, Boy Pestano-membership and Norway Lara- ways and means.

New members will also be inducted, namely Solon Bagalihog, Jun Bongo, Caesar Fernandez, Benjamin Sanchez, Manuel Abucay, Selencio Felijan, Miguel Banebane, Rey Reroma, Ronald Hamac and Glenn Dakay.

We would like to congratulate Miguel Banebane for posting the highest total score in the monthly tournaments for 2006 and the board of trustees has decided to award him a special prize—a Timex executive wrist watch.

Also to be given special prizes are the following members: Dante Arguelles, Joe Atillo, Felix Balbona, Mandy Baria, Rene Casia, Maggi Dionson, Percival Fiel, Junard Labadan and Manuel Abucay. Together with Banebane, they are the top 10 performers this year.