Pestaño: Chess and religion

Chessmoso

Thursday, December 6, 2012

MOST of the news last month was about the canonization of Visayan Pedro Calungsod and the thanksgiving mass at the SRP where more than a million people attended.

Present were some Cardinals from Rome and all the Bishops in the Philippines, two of whom were my classmates in Christ the King Mission Seminary ( an outstanding class!).

There are an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 saints in the Catholic church, so it’s no big deal. Its significance lies in the fact that he was a Cebuano from Ginatilan and he was only the second Pinoy after San Lorenzo Ruiz.

Why is there so much fascination about religion?

I have an interesting theory on why this is so. Fishes travel in schools and various birds migrate to the same places because it is genetic. So are the bees with their honeycomb.

It is the same with humans, Man’s belief in a Supreme Being and the afterlife is genetic, embedded when we evolved. To do otherwise is unnatural. That is why all kinds of religion are popular. I should know. I was in the seminary before and I joined the Cursillo movement in the late 60s and was a member of the “Born again” phenomenon in the 80s.

Now back to chess. I did a research if San Pedro Calungsod was a chess player. There is no clear picture. The closest I got was that by the time he was born, chess was already played in Cebu.

Chess and religion did not always get along. At one time or another, chess was forbidden by Roman Catholics, Jews, the Puritans, and the Muslims because of the graven images . During the 10th to 12th century you could be excommunicated for
playing chess.

Most recently the Taliban banned it.

There were exceptions though-St. Francis Xavier saved a soldier’s soul by teaching him chess and St, Francis de Sales encouraged it as long as it is played in moderation.

St Thomas Becket played constantly with another avid player King Henry II.

St Charles Borromeo was the cardinal- archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584. He played chess almost every day.

Sir Thomas More (died 6 July 1535) was an English lawyer and statesman. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935 . He said chess would be played in Utopia.

But the most outstanding of them all is a woman--St. Teresa of Avila ((March 28, 1515 – October 4, 1582), one of the leaders of the Counter Reformation. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be a founder of the Discalced Carmelites.

In 1970 she was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. Her enthusiasm of the game led to her being considered to be the patron saint of chess players
Popes who played chess included Pope Leo XIII, Pope Gregory VI, Pope Innocent III, Pope John Paul I, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Leo X.

He was not a saint or a pope but the strongest player of them all was Ruy Lopez, a Spanish priest. The most popular opening in chess is named after him. He was such an excellent player that Philip II (the Philippines is named after him) gave him a pension of 2,000 gold crowns a year which makes him more prosperous than most modern grandmasters.

A one-time Catholic priest is William Lombardy ,a grandmaster. He became a GM when he scored the only 11-0 perfect score in the World Junior Championship in 1957. In the early 1980s, Lombardy left the priesthood and subsequently married. He is now retired and lives in New York City, where he is writing and teaches chess at his home and by appointment elsewhere.

Not all Christian chess players are Catholic. Martin Luther wrote that his recurring dream was owning an ornate gold and silver chess set. Another one is Billy Graham, who plays chess when not saving souls.

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

Pestaño: Records in chess

Chessmoso

Thursday, November 22, 2012

THERE are more than 100 records in chess and counting. It is the most compared to any other sport.

Listed in the various websites I visited, including an article by Hall of Famer Bill Wall in chess.com, are the shortest and the longest games, the youngest and the oldest players, the most and the least players, the best and the worst etc.

Cebu holds the record for the largest chess tournament in terms of participants with 43,157. It covered a period of three months and had its grand finals on Jan. 22, 2012 and I was one of the official witnesses.

Just lately, Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano, 13, set a perfect record of 9/9 in Davao, which is rare in top level chess. Shell can be considered as “top level” at least for kiddies.

There are only a very small number who set perfect scores at top level. Gustav Neumann went 34-0 in Berlin in 1865. Henry Atkins went 15-0 in Amsterdam in 1899. Emanuel Lasker went 13-0 in New York in 1893. Capablanca went 13-0 in New York in 1913.

Alekhine went 11-0 in the Moscow Championship in 1919-1920. Bobby Fischer went 11-0 in the US Championship in 1963-64.

Wesley So scored 9/9 in the 2011 Inter-Provincial Chess Team Championship and won the gold medal in the 2011 SEA Games 2011 in Indonesia with a score of 9/9.

Eugene Torre played in 21 Chess Olympiads, the most by any player.

In 2011, Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami faced 604 players in 25 hours. He won 580, drew 16, and lost 8.

A disaster in a simultaneous exhibition was two wins and 18 losses by Joe Hayden, aged 17, in August 1977. Hayden wanted to set an American record by playing 180 people simultaneously at a shopping center in Cardiff, NJ but only 20 showed up. Hayden lost 18 of the games (including one to a seven-year-old). His two wins were scored against his mother and a player who got tired of waiting and left in mid-game.

Iceland has the highest per capita chess population in the world. In December 2005, Reykjavik had eight grandmasters living in its city of 110,000.

The highest rating by a woman is Judit Polgar’s peak Fide rating of 2735 (July and October 2005 lists). Hermann Helms wrote a chess column for 62 years, from 1893 to 1955, in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

George Koltanowski (honorary GM) wrote a daily chess column for 52 years, totaling over 19,000 articles in the San Francisco Chronicle . On Dec. 4 1960, in San Francisco, California, he played 56 consecutive games blindfolded, with only 10 seconds per move. He won fifty and drew six games. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

The largest private library for chess is owned by GM Lothar Schmid with over 20,000 chess books. The strongest player is not human but a chess computer “Houdini”with a rating of 3300.

These are just some of the cool trivia in chess and I will be writing about them in the future.

LOCAL CHESS. The First Colonnade Mall Youth Open Chess Tournament will be tomorrow and Sunday at the Activity Center, Colonnade Mall.

Organized by the Cebu Chess Association, this developmental chess tourney for the youth is sponsored by Rose Pharmacy Inc., A1 Handless Inc. and Eng’r and Archt. Jefrey M. Solis of Cepca.

The tourney will be a seven-round Swiss System, with 30 minutes time control.

Registration starts at 12:30 p.m. while the game proper starts at 1:30 p.m.

Cepca will have a team match up against selected Ladies varsity players from USC, UC and USJR 12 boards at Collonade tomorrow at 4 p.m.

Our monthly tournament for members only will be on Sunday at Colonnade Mall at 1 p.m.
Please text Jun Olis at 09232629642 for details of both tournaments.

The tournament at Jun Olis residence in Opon in celebration of the city fiesta last Tuesday was won by Romy Resuera. He was followed by Kraig Quinain and Jojo Muralla.

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

Pestaño: Karjakin, Grischuk are rapid and blitz champs

By Frank 'Boy' Pestaño

Chessmoso

Thursday, July 12, 2012

THE Official World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships were held from July 1-11 in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan and had a prize money of $400,000. It is worth noting that the Rapid championship was a first in the history of Fide.

The rapid tournament was a 16-player single round robin and the blitz event was a 16-player double round robin.

Rate of play was 15 minutes plus 10-second increment per move, starting from move one for rapid and three minutes plus two-second increment per move, starting from move one for blitz.

There was a special rule. The players were not allowed to offer draws directly to their opponents. Any draw claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter and accepted in case of a triple-repetition of the position or the 50-move rule.

The players who joined the tournament were Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, Viktor Bologan, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexey Dreev, Igor Kurnosov, Vladislav Tkachiev, Murtas Kazhgaleyev, Anuar Ismagambetov, Dmitry Andreikin, Le Quang Liem, Nikolai Chadaev, Pavel Kotsur and Rinat Jumabayev.

Karjakin won the rapid competition with a score of 11.5/15, a full point ahead of Carlsen. He had an incredible third day performance of 4.5/5.

After two days of play and 10 games Carlsen looked like he was a certain winner. But
then the Norwegian world number 1 lost two in a row, allowing Karjakin to catch and then overtake him.

Ivanchuk played a large part in the final result, running out of time to Karjakin in his first game of the day, then beating Carlsen in the second.

Carlsen lost another game against Grischuk in round 13, and should have lost another when Veselin Topalov missed a checkmate in their final round clash.

Karjakin holds the record for both the youngest International Master (11 years and eleven months old) and youngest grandmaster in history (at the age of 12 years and seven months).

The World Blitz Championship was won by Grischuk . He led almost throughout. Carlsen started slowly but finished strongly, defeating Karjakin to overtake him for second place.

Grischuk is a Russian grandmaster and was Russian Champion in 2009. He has won two team gold medals and one individual bronze medal at Chess Olympiads.

Russia vs. China. Russia defeated China 77.5-72.5 in their annual Scheveningen match held in St. Petersburg this year from July 1-9.

The Russian men’s team won the classical chess, 13.5-11.5, but their women went down, 14.5-10.5. In rapid chess, the Russian men also won, 29-21. The Chinese women scored another victory as well, albeit with a smaller margin, 25.5-24.5.

The players who represented Russia (men’s) -Dmitry Jakovenko, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nikita Vitiugov, while the Chinese men’s players were Wang Hao, Wang Yue, Li Chao, Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi.

The women’s players were Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Natalija Pogonina, Olga Girya, Baira Kovanova for Russia and Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun, Huang Qian, Shen Yang, Ding Yixin for China.

Poker. Antonio Esfandiari has won the largest buy-in tournament in poker history, the $1-million Big One for One Drop at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

He is a professional poker player and former professional magician, known for his elaborate chip tricks. By winning the event, along with the largest cash prize in the history of poker at $18,346,673, Esfandiari is now ranked number one in all-time tournament poker winnings.

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

Pestaño: Different definitions of chess

Chessmoso

Thursday, November 8, 2012

CHESS is more than just a game. Different people look at it from different points of view.

Peterson Sia, who has an extensive collection of chess books, lent me the Complete Chess Addict by Mike Fox and Richard James where there is a collection of various definitions of the game of chess by its adherents, mostly grandmasters and famous people. Here they are. Also take note of the definition by Chessmoso at the end.

Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something clever--George Bernard Shaw.

Chess is not a game but a disease-Henry Campbell. Bannerman.

Chess is the art of analysis. Mikhail Botvinnik.

Chess is a beautiful mistress. Bent Larsen.

Chess is a fighting game which is purely intellectual and excludes chance. Richard Reti.

Chess is everything--art,science and sport. Anatoly Karpov.

Chess is one of the sins of pride--John Bromyard.

Chess is life. Bobby Fischer.

Chess is undoubtedly the same sort of art as painting or sculpture. Jose Raul Capablanca.

Chess is beautiful enough to waste your life for. Hans Ree.

Chess is a fine entertainment. Leo Tolstoy.

Chess is not merely an idle amusement……life is a kind of chess. Ben Franklin.

Chess is the game which reflects most honour on human wit. Voltaire.

Chess is sport-a violet sport. Marcel Duchamp.

Chess is the touchstone of the intellect. John Wolfgang von Goethe.

Chess is not for the timid soul. Wilhelm Steinitz.

Chess is an international language. Edward Lasker.

Chess is work. Walter Browne.

Chess is a fairy Tale of 1001 blunders. Savielly Tartakower.

Chess is the most exciting game in the world. Irving Chernev.

Chess is a test of wills. Paul Keres.

Chess is life in miniature. Chess is struggle. Chess is battles. Gary Kasparov.

Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe. Indian proverb.

Chess is the struggle against error. Johannes Zukertort.

Chess is a contest between two men in which there is considerable ego involved. Reuben Fine.

Chess is too difficult to be a game and not serious enough to be a science or art.

Napoleon.

Chess is as much a mystery as women. Cecil Purdy.

Chess is one of the noblest inventions of the human mind. Cyril Joad.

Chess is a form of intellectual productiveness. Siegbert Tarrasch.

Chess is not a science. Henri Poincare.

Chess is not only knowledge and logic. Alexander Alekhine.

Chess is a cure for headaches. John Maynard Keynes.

Chess is the fairest of all the games.

Chess is an addiction that has sometimes destroyed marriages ,friendship and one’s usefulness—Chessmoso, by observation after more than 50 years of being involved in the game.

1st Stallion Open. Fernando Villanueva is inviting all players to an NCFP-rated tournament on Nov. 10-11 in celebration of the Pasil fiesta along Conception St. Contest starts at 1pm.

Format is 7 rounds Swiss with a time control of 30 minutes. Champion will pocket P5,000 while the second and third placers will earn P3,000 and P2,000, respectively.

The fourth to 10th placers will settle for P300 each. There will be special prizes for the top lady and kiddie players.

This competition is organized by NM Rogelio Enriquez, Gino Cabansay and Jun “Amo”Gracia. For more details contact arbiter Marvin Ruelan-09267352951.

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

Pestaño: Chess masters in jail

Chessmoso

Thursday, October 25, 2012

LAST Wednesday, in celebration of “National Correctional Consciousness Week” Cepca sponsored a tournament among inmates at the Mandaue City Jail. It was held upon the invitation by warden Supt. Jesse Calumpang and it was part of their outreach program.

The winners of the tourney were Eljake Buhion, followed by Edward Embarnace, Ramil Altamirano, Joselito Pasigay and Carlos Hortelano.

Jojo Muralla, Dante Arguelles and Jun Olis made a simul exhibition each after the tournament and unfortunately, there was no winner among the inmates. Assisting the tournament were inmates Tony de Guzman and Rey Dignos, who also served us dinner and helped us enjoy the karaoke entertainment that followed.

It was a memorable day for us as all the players acted like true sportsmen.

We are planning to make this a yearly affair and also include other jails in our program. Thank you, Supt. Jesse Calumpang for the invitation!

This gave me an idea to feature chess masters in jail as the topic of my article today.

Most of the information is from the website chess.com and other sources in the internet.

In 1914, Russian chess World champion Alexander Alekhine and other masters were arrested at the Mannheim, Germany Congress when World War I broke out. Alekhine was released after six weeks.

In 1921, British chess master William Winter (1898-1955) was imprisoned as he was an active member of the Communist Party. In 1932, chess master Norman Tweed Whitaker (1890-1975) was arrested for attempted extortion in a scheme to swindle $104,000 from a wealthy heiress by claiming to be in contact with the Lindbergh kidnappers. In 1937, chess problem composer Mikhail Platov was imprisoned in Russia after making a
derogatory remark about Stalin.

In March 1952, grandmaster Pal Benko was imprisoned for 16 months in a Hungarian concentration camp for trying to defect to the West.

In May 1981, Bobby Fischer was imprisoned for two days in Pasadena, California because he matched the description of a man who had committed a bank robbery in that area.

Garry Kasparov was among 170 people arrested during an anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow in 2007. Some say he was in prison for five days after being fined $40 for public order offenses.

LOCAL EVENTS. The Consolacion Chess Fiesta was held last Oct.20-21 at SM Consolacion and the winners in the Open category were Allan Salientes, followed by new Cepca member Capt.Rey Flores and Michael Silvederio.

Colonnade Open. This NCFP rated competition is open to all rated and non-rated players and is sponsored by Rose Pharmacy, Colonnade Mall, Julies Bakeshop and organized by Cepca. Format is seven rounds Swiss and time control is 40 minutes per player plus 5- second increments and 45 minutes with no increment.

Three rounds will be played tomorrow and the final four rounds on Sunday at Colonnade Mall starting at 10 a.m.

The champion will take home P5,000 plus trophy, while the second to fourth placers will get P3,000, P2,000 and P1,000, respectively. The fifth to 12th placers will receive P500 each. There will also be special prizes of P500 each for top performers in Ladies, Kiddies, Juniors and Seniors.

Registration is P75 for the Ladies and Kiddies players and P100 for the Juniors division and P200 for the rest.

For more information contact Marvin Ruelan (09267352951),Jojo Muralla (09224762566), Jun Olis (92352629542) and me.

CPAs vs ATTYs. Today at 2 p.m. at Deep Blue in SM City, the accountants and lawyers will meet in a 10-board match to find out who are the better chess players.

The accountants partially include Drigo Ababat, Felix Balbona, Carlo Maraat, Tomas Riveral, Rafael Perez, Nestor Encarnado and Reneir Mora.

The lawyers partial list includes Jongjong Melendez, Boy Tumulak, Ben Harayo and Jorge Gabriente.

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

Pestaño: Is Wesley So migrating to Canada?

Chessmoso

Thursday, October 18, 2012

WESLEY So is the best player the Philippines has ever produced.

So became a grandmaster at 14 years, one month and 28 days, making him the eighth youngest in the history of chess. In October 2008, he was rated 2610 and thus became the youngest player to become a Super GM at that time.

So was born in Bacoor, Cavite on Oct. 9, 1993 to William and Eleanor So, who are both accountants. His father taught him to play chess at age six. He started to compete in junior active chess tournaments at a very early age.

Now there is a possibility that Wesley might migrate to Canada and the Philippines could lose a potential world champion. Remember WIM Arianne Caoli who migrated to Australia several years ago? She played board 1 for Australia in the last Olympiad in Istanbul.

In fact, Wesley’s family has been living in Canada for two years now and being a minor, Wesley was surely also approved as immigrant.

He has been in Canada for some time and won both the Toronto Invitational and the Quebec Open recently.

Right now, Wesley is studying as a freshman-scholar at Webster University in St. Louis under the Spice (Susan Polgar Institute of Chess Excellence) program.

The Spice Cup 2012 tournament is now ongoing and the players are (all GMs): Le Quang Liem, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Ding Liren, Csaba Balogh, Wesley So and Georg Meier.

Only four games out of 15 have been decisive and after five rounds Wesley and Maxime are leading with 3 points.

tournaments. The monthly winner of the Lapu-Lapu Chess Club last weekend was 15-year-old Ariel Abellana. He was followed by Rolando Torres, Aldwin Daculan, Romeo Resuera and Giovanni Borongan.

Also last weekend, the J Mall Centre Open Tournament was won by Rommel Ganzon Carlos Moreno via tiebreak. Joel Pacuribot got third place, while Michael Pagaran and Bryle Arillano got the fourth and fifth places.

Cepca’s October champion was new member Dr. Ben Rodriguez, while Jojo Muralla and Mike Banebane got second and third places.

I understand that a new member, Professor Ronald Galindo of USC, will be donating a custom-built trophy for Cepca’s grand final winner. Many thanks Ronald!

Coming tournaments. There will be a tournament tomorrow at 10 a.m. in SM Consolacion exclusive for residents. There were will be an open division and an elementary and secondary categories. The event is part of the town’s fiesta celebration and registration is free in all categories. Format is seven rounds Swiss with time control of 25 minutes.

Cepca will be sponsoring again a tournament among inmates at the Mandaue City Jail upon the invitation of warden Jesse Calumpang on Oct. 24 starting at 1 p.m.

The inmates will be celebrating their National Correctional Consciousness week.

Take note of the Colonnade Open Tournament sponsored by Cepca on Oct. 27-28. Format will be active and may either be 7 or 9 rounds, depending on the number of participants.

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

Pestaño: Chess problems and puzzles

Chessmoso

Thursday, October 4, 2012

CHESS puzzles or problems are an integral part of Chessmoso. We’ve been at it for the past eight years, although with some brief interruption.

Like music, poetry or painting, not everybody can compose a chess problem. It is a gift endowed on a selected few. Even if you are a grandmaster, you cannot create masterpieces that those gifted can do in a matter of hours.

We exercise to keep our bodies fit like going to the gym or running which is quite popular now. Solving chess puzzles or problems is fun and keeps our minds agile. It gives a peculiar feeling of satisfaction when you finally find the key move.

Every chess player knows about the Polgar sisters. Judit is the strongest lady player of all time while Susan is a five-time women’s world champion and Sofia is a strong International Master.

They were trained since early childhood to play chess and part of their training was solving a chess puzzle or problem every day.

Solving chess puzzles is a common technique to train the beginner. Although it is unlikely that the same position will occur in a game, the recognition of certain patterns can help . As long as you have the desire to try to find the solution yourself without asking others to help you, you can become a better player.

There is a difference between a chess problem and a chess puzzle. A puzzle comes as a result of normal play or with some slight improvements, while a chess problem is composed .

All of the problems that are featured in Chessmoso are pure mates in two or three moves. Those with four moves or over are difficult to solve. Other types like “white to move and win” are not appealing to the general public.

Other types of chess puzzles are helpmates, where black moves first and cooperates with white wherein black’s king is mated in a certain number of moves. Another one is self-mate, where white moves first and forces black to checkmate white also in a certain number of moves.

A chess problem’s key move must be unique. If there are more than one key move, then the puzzle is said to be defective or in chess parlance “cooked.”

The key move of the solution to the puzzle should not be obvious. Obvious moves such as checks, captures, and moves which restrict the movement of the black king are not good puzzles.

Other conditions are that there should be no promoted pawns in the initial position and every piece on the board should serve a purpose, either to help in the solution, or to exclude other solutions.

Great chess problems composers are Samuel Lloyd,Miroslav Havel, Comins Mansfield, Godfrey Heathcote, Michael lipton, Frederick Gamage, Alain White, William Shinkman,etc. There are a lot more who are just as good.

Pinoys shine in Malaysia. The Malaysian chess festival was recently held in Kuala Lumpur and featured three sections.

The top IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Chess Tournament, with 176 players from 14 countries, was won by GM Joey Antonio Jr. while The Astro Rapid Open Team Championship had 66 teams participating and was won by Quezon City.

Compatriot Ronaldo Nolte finished with 9/10,the same score as Joey but the latter won the gold medal on better tiebreak.

Cebuanos who played were Richard Bitoon, who finished just a half point behind Nolte amd Joey with 8.5, and Eden Diano with 8 points.

Picpa. The Philippines Institute of Certified Public Accountants recently sponsored a 4-players team tournament at J Centre Mall in Mandaue City.

Eight teams played and the team Balbona—composed of family members Felix Shaun, Jessa and dad Felix and ably anchored by Merben Roque--won the top prize of P10,000 plus trophy. Organizer was CPA-Lawyer Rheneir P. Mora.

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