Here are some unusual stories that I picked up from the net that will surely enchant most lovers of chess trivia. It shows how extensive the game is to everyday life.
In 1794, Thomas Paine (1737-1809), author of The Rights of Man and Common Sense, was arrested in Paris for favoring the exile of King Louis XVI rather than his execution. Paine was scheduled to be guillotined, but his wife intervened . She frequented the Café de la Regence where Robespierre frequented and defeated him in a game of chess. Robespierre challenged her again and promised to grant any wish if she won again. She again won and asked that her husband’s life be spared. Thomas Paine then was released from prison. "Common Sense" was so influential that John Adams said, "Without the pen of the author of 'Common Sense,' the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.”
In 1866, William Henry Russ (1833-1866) shot his adopted daughter four times in the head after he proposed marriage when she turned 21, and she rejected him. He then jumped into a river to drown himself. He was arrested, but died 10 days later, lacking the will to live. The woman survived. He was a leading American compiler of chess problems in the 19th century who wrote under the name W. R. Henry. His book, American Chess Nuts, was published in 1868.
Joseph Blackburne nicknamed "The Black Death", dominated British chess during the latter part of the 19th century. He was arrested as a French spy for sending chess moves in the mail. The British government thought they were coded secrets.
In 1932, Norman Tweed Whitaker (1890-1975), who became an International Master at the late age of 75, 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. He was a lawyer but was disbarred for his criminal offenses. He served time in Alcatraz and was a friend of Al Capone there.
Prolific bank robber Willie Sutton (1901-1980) who stole an estimated $2 million, and eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison, was arrested by the FBI. At the time, Sutton was reading How to Think Ahead in Chess by I.A. Horowitz. Sutton claimed that he robbed banks "because that's where the money is."
In 1964, chess master Raymond Weinstein was arrested for murder after he killed an 83-year old man in a nursing home with a razor. He was judged mentally ill and was confined to Ward’s Island for the mentally ill. Weinstein defeated many top American players, including Samuel Reshevsky and Pal Benko. He never defeated Bobby Fischer, although he drew one game of four with him (in the 1959-60 US Championship).
Ludek Pachman (1924-2003) was a Czechoslovak-German chess grandmaster, writer, and political activist. In 1972, after being imprisoned and tortured almost to death by the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, he was allowed to emigrate to West Germany. He lived the remainder of his life there, and resumed his chess career with considerable success, including winning the West German Championship in 1978 and playing in the Interzonal in 1976.
In March 1952, Pal Benko, who is now 83 years old, was arrested and imprisoned for 16 months in a Hungarian concentration camp for trying to escape from East Berlin and defect to the West. He was accused of being an American spy. He is famous for the Benko Gambit and Benko Opening (g3) which he introduced at the 1962 Candidates Tournament, defeating Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal with it. He was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1993.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
How chess players die
For the past few days most activities were related to death. Almost everybody went to the cemetery to clean the graves of their loved ones for the observance of All Souls Day.
This article is all about the death of famous chess players, mostly grandmasters.
If you visit an on-going chess tournament, you can immediately feel the tension in the air. A study of top level chess shows that the players have elevated blood pressure and experience a lot of stress.
Its no wonder that one of the causes of premature death is heart attack.
Those who died of a heart attack include Adolf Anderssen (age 60), Vladimir Bagirov (64), Joseph Blackburne (82), Efim Bogoljubov (63), Gyula Breyer (28), Jose Capablanca (53), Max Euwe (80), Paul Keres (59), Emanuel Lasker (72), Paul Leonhardt (57), Frank Marshall (67), Miguel Najdorf (87), Cecil Purdy of Australia (73), Sammy Reshevsky (80), Gideon Stahlberg (59), Howard Staunton (64), Leonid Stein ( 38), Herman Steiner (50), and Alexei Suetin (74), Vladimir Simagin (49), Johann Zukertort (44).
Bagirov, Bogoljubov, Capablanca, Ed Edmondson, Forry Laucks, Leonhardt, Marshall, Purdy, Simagin, Stahlberg, Steiner, Suetin, and Zukertort all died while playing chess or just finishing a chess game.
Another leading cause of death is cancer and one of the victims is our own Rosendo Balinas .
Cancer also killed Argentine Grandmaster Gerardo Barbero (age 40), Mikhail Botvinnik (83), Ricardo Calvo (59), Efim Geller (73), Tigran Petrosian (55), Karl Robatsch ( 71), Daniel Yanofsky (74), Claude Bloodgood (64)
Some masters died of accidental death. Grandmaster Georgy Agzamov of Russia died in 1986 at the age of 32 after he fell between some rocks at a beach .
Alexander Alekhine died at the age of 53 from a piece of choked meat.
Janos Flesch died in a car wreck at the age of 50. So did Cuban Grandmaster Guillermo Garcia. He was 36.
Julius Perlis, a strong master, died in 1913 at the age of 33 from a fall on a mountain in the Alps.
Frederick Yates died from a gas leak in his house. So did Hungarian International Master Arpad Vajda.
International Master Nicholas Rossolimo fell down a flight of stairs in New York and died at 65.
There were some who committed suicide.
Curt von Bardeleben jumped to his death from his boarding home. Karen Grigorian also jumped to his death at age 42. Lemit Oll also jumped to his death from his 4th story apartment at age 35. Alvis Vitolins also jumped to his death at age 59.
The most unusual death is a chess player named "Nikolai Titov" whose head exploded during the Moscow Candidate Masters' Chess Championships due to the condition 'Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis'.
Diabetes also killed Mikhail Chigorin (1850-1908) and Louis Paulsen (1833-1891).
The most famous player,Bobby Fischer, died of kidney failure ,the same cause of death of another world champion Mikhael Tal (1936-1992)
Another unusual cause of death were Bright's Disease, Alexander McDonnell 1798 -1835; Syphillis, Harry Pillsbury (1872-1906); Scarlet Fever, Richard Reti 1889-1929;
Starvation, Abram Rabinovich (1878-1943).
During the war, the Germans arrested all the chess players that were meeting at the Warsaw Chess Club , which was banned earlier . The Jews were all taken to a concentration camp and were later killed in a mass execution. This included Polish masters Dawid Przepiorka, Achilles Frydmann, Stanislaw Kohn, and Moishe Lowtzky.
Most of the information in this article is from the website of hall of famer Bill Wall, various postings in chess.com and the trivia collection of Ed Beronio of Cavite.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
This article is all about the death of famous chess players, mostly grandmasters.
If you visit an on-going chess tournament, you can immediately feel the tension in the air. A study of top level chess shows that the players have elevated blood pressure and experience a lot of stress.
Its no wonder that one of the causes of premature death is heart attack.
Those who died of a heart attack include Adolf Anderssen (age 60), Vladimir Bagirov (64), Joseph Blackburne (82), Efim Bogoljubov (63), Gyula Breyer (28), Jose Capablanca (53), Max Euwe (80), Paul Keres (59), Emanuel Lasker (72), Paul Leonhardt (57), Frank Marshall (67), Miguel Najdorf (87), Cecil Purdy of Australia (73), Sammy Reshevsky (80), Gideon Stahlberg (59), Howard Staunton (64), Leonid Stein ( 38), Herman Steiner (50), and Alexei Suetin (74), Vladimir Simagin (49), Johann Zukertort (44).
Bagirov, Bogoljubov, Capablanca, Ed Edmondson, Forry Laucks, Leonhardt, Marshall, Purdy, Simagin, Stahlberg, Steiner, Suetin, and Zukertort all died while playing chess or just finishing a chess game.
Another leading cause of death is cancer and one of the victims is our own Rosendo Balinas .
Cancer also killed Argentine Grandmaster Gerardo Barbero (age 40), Mikhail Botvinnik (83), Ricardo Calvo (59), Efim Geller (73), Tigran Petrosian (55), Karl Robatsch ( 71), Daniel Yanofsky (74), Claude Bloodgood (64)
Some masters died of accidental death. Grandmaster Georgy Agzamov of Russia died in 1986 at the age of 32 after he fell between some rocks at a beach .
Alexander Alekhine died at the age of 53 from a piece of choked meat.
Janos Flesch died in a car wreck at the age of 50. So did Cuban Grandmaster Guillermo Garcia. He was 36.
Julius Perlis, a strong master, died in 1913 at the age of 33 from a fall on a mountain in the Alps.
Frederick Yates died from a gas leak in his house. So did Hungarian International Master Arpad Vajda.
International Master Nicholas Rossolimo fell down a flight of stairs in New York and died at 65.
There were some who committed suicide.
Curt von Bardeleben jumped to his death from his boarding home. Karen Grigorian also jumped to his death at age 42. Lemit Oll also jumped to his death from his 4th story apartment at age 35. Alvis Vitolins also jumped to his death at age 59.
The most unusual death is a chess player named "Nikolai Titov" whose head exploded during the Moscow Candidate Masters' Chess Championships due to the condition 'Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis'.
Diabetes also killed Mikhail Chigorin (1850-1908) and Louis Paulsen (1833-1891).
The most famous player,Bobby Fischer, died of kidney failure ,the same cause of death of another world champion Mikhael Tal (1936-1992)
Another unusual cause of death were Bright's Disease, Alexander McDonnell 1798 -1835; Syphillis, Harry Pillsbury (1872-1906); Scarlet Fever, Richard Reti 1889-1929;
Starvation, Abram Rabinovich (1878-1943).
During the war, the Germans arrested all the chess players that were meeting at the Warsaw Chess Club , which was banned earlier . The Jews were all taken to a concentration camp and were later killed in a mass execution. This included Polish masters Dawid Przepiorka, Achilles Frydmann, Stanislaw Kohn, and Moishe Lowtzky.
Most of the information in this article is from the website of hall of famer Bill Wall, various postings in chess.com and the trivia collection of Ed Beronio of Cavite.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
NCFP rated tournament today
After quite sometime the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) in cooperation with the new and renovated Colonnade Mall will bring a chess tournament sanctioned and rated by the country`s governing body , the National Chess Federation of the Philippines.
Venue is at Colonnade Mall activity center and please be on time at 9am as we will have a short program and the first game will start at 10am. On site registration will be allowed.
Format is 9 rounds Swiss and time control is one hour per player ,play to finish.
There will only be one section and men, ladies ,kiddies and Cepca members will play against each other.
The champion will take home P5,000 and the 1st runner-up P3,000. Third place will be richer by P2,000 and 4th will snare P1,000. 5th -10th place will receive P500 each.
A specially designed trophy will be given to the champion
There will also be special prizes: best placed Cepca member will be awarded P1,000;best placed lady P1,000; best kiddie (15 and under) P1,000 and best senior (60 and over) P1,000.
Registration is P150 for men and Cepca members while ladies and kiddies will pay only P75.
As there might be a shortage of chess clocks, the organizers are urging those who own one to use it during their game and he/she will enjoy a discount of P50 from the registration fee.
The following officials will manage this tournament.
The tournament director is the president of Cepca himself , Jojo Muralla. Members of the committee are Nicnic Climaco,Jun Olis and Ely Berciles.
Chief referee is Fide arbiter Marvin Ruelan assisted by Fide arbiters Roger Abella,Felix Poloyapoy and Bob Tojong.
As this is a NCFP Rated tournament a Swiss manager will be used operated by Felix Poloyapoy.
Here are some tips and suggestions on how you play today.
Always play the openings you practiced. Don't get to the tournament and change your mind!
Pay no attention to your opponent's rating. Play chess, not numbers.
Your opponent may play extremely fast to throw you off. Take your time, never rush a chess game. Remember this is an NCFP rated tournament and a player is allotted one whole hour to finish the game.
Don't take long breaks from the tournament game as you run the risk of losing lots of valuable time on your clock.
Most of all have fun! although winning money feels good, you are there to enjoy chess first and foremost. If you resign a game, compliment your opponent and be a good loser. Keep a positive attitude and don’t get depressed over every defeat. After all there is always another game ,Good luck to all players !.
Indonesia Open.The 2011 Indonesia Open Chess Championship is on-going at the Le Meredien Hotel in Jakarta. 80 players compete in the 9-round Swiss tournament. 9 pinoys are playing, all GMs.
The generous prize fund amounts to US $55.500 , with $10.000 reserved for the winner.
The rest of the prizes are 2nd : $6.000 3rd : $4.000 USD 4th : $3.000 5th : $2.500
6th : $2.000 7th – 12th @ $1.500 : $9.000 13th – 20th @ $750: $6.000.
Best Women – 1st : $2.500 , 2nd : $1.500 , 3rd : $1.000
Best Junior U-20 – 1st : $1.500 , 2nd : $1.000, 3rd : $500
* Prizes are equally shared among players who has same points
The last round takes place tomorrow,
Round 8 standings:1 Ganguly Surya Shekhar IND 2631 6.5 2. Barbosa Oliver PHI 2538 6 3. Wang Yue CHN 2716 6 4. Li Chao CHN 2710 6 5. Dreev Aleksey RUS 2711 6 6. Mareco Sandro ARG 2597 6 7. Tkachiev Vladislav FRA 2631 5.5 8. So Wesley PHI 2655 5.5 9. Megaranto Susanto INA 2530 5.5 10. Bitoon Richard PHI 2504 5.5.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Venue is at Colonnade Mall activity center and please be on time at 9am as we will have a short program and the first game will start at 10am. On site registration will be allowed.
Format is 9 rounds Swiss and time control is one hour per player ,play to finish.
There will only be one section and men, ladies ,kiddies and Cepca members will play against each other.
The champion will take home P5,000 and the 1st runner-up P3,000. Third place will be richer by P2,000 and 4th will snare P1,000. 5th -10th place will receive P500 each.
A specially designed trophy will be given to the champion
There will also be special prizes: best placed Cepca member will be awarded P1,000;best placed lady P1,000; best kiddie (15 and under) P1,000 and best senior (60 and over) P1,000.
Registration is P150 for men and Cepca members while ladies and kiddies will pay only P75.
As there might be a shortage of chess clocks, the organizers are urging those who own one to use it during their game and he/she will enjoy a discount of P50 from the registration fee.
The following officials will manage this tournament.
The tournament director is the president of Cepca himself , Jojo Muralla. Members of the committee are Nicnic Climaco,Jun Olis and Ely Berciles.
Chief referee is Fide arbiter Marvin Ruelan assisted by Fide arbiters Roger Abella,Felix Poloyapoy and Bob Tojong.
As this is a NCFP Rated tournament a Swiss manager will be used operated by Felix Poloyapoy.
Here are some tips and suggestions on how you play today.
Always play the openings you practiced. Don't get to the tournament and change your mind!
Pay no attention to your opponent's rating. Play chess, not numbers.
Your opponent may play extremely fast to throw you off. Take your time, never rush a chess game. Remember this is an NCFP rated tournament and a player is allotted one whole hour to finish the game.
Don't take long breaks from the tournament game as you run the risk of losing lots of valuable time on your clock.
Most of all have fun! although winning money feels good, you are there to enjoy chess first and foremost. If you resign a game, compliment your opponent and be a good loser. Keep a positive attitude and don’t get depressed over every defeat. After all there is always another game ,Good luck to all players !.
Indonesia Open.The 2011 Indonesia Open Chess Championship is on-going at the Le Meredien Hotel in Jakarta. 80 players compete in the 9-round Swiss tournament. 9 pinoys are playing, all GMs.
The generous prize fund amounts to US $55.500 , with $10.000 reserved for the winner.
The rest of the prizes are 2nd : $6.000 3rd : $4.000 USD 4th : $3.000 5th : $2.500
6th : $2.000 7th – 12th @ $1.500 : $9.000 13th – 20th @ $750: $6.000.
Best Women – 1st : $2.500 , 2nd : $1.500 , 3rd : $1.000
Best Junior U-20 – 1st : $1.500 , 2nd : $1.000, 3rd : $500
* Prizes are equally shared among players who has same points
The last round takes place tomorrow,
Round 8 standings:1 Ganguly Surya Shekhar IND 2631 6.5 2. Barbosa Oliver PHI 2538 6 3. Wang Yue CHN 2716 6 4. Li Chao CHN 2710 6 5. Dreev Aleksey RUS 2711 6 6. Mareco Sandro ARG 2597 6 7. Tkachiev Vladislav FRA 2631 5.5 8. So Wesley PHI 2655 5.5 9. Megaranto Susanto INA 2530 5.5 10. Bitoon Richard PHI 2504 5.5.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Colonnade chess grand prix
Next weekend, October 21-23, the New Colonnade Mall in association with the Cebu Executives and Professionals Association (Cepca) will be sponsoring a chess tournament open to all players including ladies and kiddies as well as Cepca members.
Format is 9 rounds Swiss with a time control of one hour per player, play to finish. All games will be played at Oriente Colonnade Mall along Colon St.
This tournament will be sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and all participants will be accorded NCFP Ratings after the tournament.
The Champion will take home P5,000 and the 1st runner-up P3,000.There will be prizes up to 10th place. In addition the top finishers of the ladies ,kiddies as well as Cepca members will get special prizes .
There will be 3 games per day starting at 10:am followed by a break and will resume at 1pm. The final game of the day will be at 3:30 pm.
Registration will be P150 for all players including Cepca members while ladies and kiddies will pay only P75.
As there might be a shortage of chess clocks and sets, .those who bring their own clocks and sets will get a deduction of P50 from the registration fee meaning men pay only P100 and ladies and kiddies will pay only P25.
This is a project of the new and renovated Colonnade Mall management organized by Cepca under its new president Jojo Muralla to promote the royal game in Cebu.
This is a Grand Prix tournament meaning it will be a series of monthly contests followed by quarterly tournaments and a grand final in October next year.
These tournaments will surely make Cebu the center of chess activities in the country as no other place in the Philippines have such a program.
Grand Slam Just like golf and tennis, chess also has its own Grand Slam and is accorded the highest importance by Fide in the chess calendar.
The 4th Grand Slam Masters final has just concluded and continuing the new trend of sharing the event with a partner city, the organizers in Bilbao, Spain have chosen São Paulo this year to host the first half.
Magnus Carlsen won after beating Vassily Ivanchuk 1.5-0.5 in a blitz play-off. Carlsen has 15 points, the same score as Ivanchuk who finished second.
Behind them, Levon Aronian, World Champion Vishy Anand and and Hikaru Nakamura are sharing the third place with 12 points each. The Spanish Francisco Vallejo is closing the standings with 10 points.
Scoring was “football” style meaning 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.
Format was double round robin with a time control of 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 10 seconds/move starting with the 1st move
This is the strongest tournament for this year as the top 3 players –Carlsen,Anand and Aronian-all have ratings above 2800 and the other 3 are over 2700
Magnus Carlsen dominated the Bilbao half of the Final Masters and finished level with Vassily Ivanchuk who played with excellent results in Sao Paolo. Carlsen would have won the event with a normal scoring system but won anyhow.
Vassily Ivanchuk also played a fine tournament but his play was more uneven. The big news of the tourney was his mugging and robbery together with his wife as he was leaving Sao Paolo on the way to the airport.
Nakamura and Anand are obviously disappointed at the results and Aronian was below par and not his usual self. His win against Anand was one of his few bright spots.
As for Francisco Vallejo Pons ,he was targeted every round. He's a good and very strong player but the others were just better.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Format is 9 rounds Swiss with a time control of one hour per player, play to finish. All games will be played at Oriente Colonnade Mall along Colon St.
This tournament will be sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and all participants will be accorded NCFP Ratings after the tournament.
The Champion will take home P5,000 and the 1st runner-up P3,000.There will be prizes up to 10th place. In addition the top finishers of the ladies ,kiddies as well as Cepca members will get special prizes .
There will be 3 games per day starting at 10:am followed by a break and will resume at 1pm. The final game of the day will be at 3:30 pm.
Registration will be P150 for all players including Cepca members while ladies and kiddies will pay only P75.
As there might be a shortage of chess clocks and sets, .those who bring their own clocks and sets will get a deduction of P50 from the registration fee meaning men pay only P100 and ladies and kiddies will pay only P25.
This is a project of the new and renovated Colonnade Mall management organized by Cepca under its new president Jojo Muralla to promote the royal game in Cebu.
This is a Grand Prix tournament meaning it will be a series of monthly contests followed by quarterly tournaments and a grand final in October next year.
These tournaments will surely make Cebu the center of chess activities in the country as no other place in the Philippines have such a program.
Grand Slam Just like golf and tennis, chess also has its own Grand Slam and is accorded the highest importance by Fide in the chess calendar.
The 4th Grand Slam Masters final has just concluded and continuing the new trend of sharing the event with a partner city, the organizers in Bilbao, Spain have chosen São Paulo this year to host the first half.
Magnus Carlsen won after beating Vassily Ivanchuk 1.5-0.5 in a blitz play-off. Carlsen has 15 points, the same score as Ivanchuk who finished second.
Behind them, Levon Aronian, World Champion Vishy Anand and and Hikaru Nakamura are sharing the third place with 12 points each. The Spanish Francisco Vallejo is closing the standings with 10 points.
Scoring was “football” style meaning 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.
Format was double round robin with a time control of 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 10 seconds/move starting with the 1st move
This is the strongest tournament for this year as the top 3 players –Carlsen,Anand and Aronian-all have ratings above 2800 and the other 3 are over 2700
Magnus Carlsen dominated the Bilbao half of the Final Masters and finished level with Vassily Ivanchuk who played with excellent results in Sao Paolo. Carlsen would have won the event with a normal scoring system but won anyhow.
Vassily Ivanchuk also played a fine tournament but his play was more uneven. The big news of the tourney was his mugging and robbery together with his wife as he was leaving Sao Paolo on the way to the airport.
Nakamura and Anand are obviously disappointed at the results and Aronian was below par and not his usual self. His win against Anand was one of his few bright spots.
As for Francisco Vallejo Pons ,he was targeted every round. He's a good and very strong player but the others were just better.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Women chess
"They're all weak, all women. They're stupid compared to men.
They shouldn't play chess, you know. They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man.
There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat."
Robert Fischer,1962
Chess is a man`s game. It does not have the same appeal to women and why this is so is somewhat of a mystery.
The ratio of chess playing women to men is about 1:30 and may be even less as there are only 3 women in the top 300 players.
The main reason is probably biological or genetic as there is no satisfactory answer(s). Physical strength is not needed in chess and according to some studies women have more endurance than men.
Also, according tho WGM Natalia Pogogina,if we look at the percentage of so-called “grandmaster draws” among women and men then we’ll see that women’s fighting spirits are definitely higher
So, maybe women are just less smart than men? On the average the answer is “no”. Then what’s the problem?
The answer seems to be psychological and the upbringing of girls compared to boys. A stereotype exists in chess that women are no match for men. It is based on statistical data. That’s why many female chess players are taught from early childhood that they’ll never make it to men’s level. Parents deem chess as a strange pastime for a girl,
There is even an amusing hypothesis that chess is for immature and weird people, so women (who tend to mature faster than men) don’t take up such a strange occupation.
Fide Has however not entirely neglected Women chess. We have a Women Grand Prix the same as men and a women world championship Cycle.
In the last 10 years the Chinese have dominated Women chess. The current champion is 17 year old Hou Yifan.
Past Champions were Xie Jun (1991-96), Zhu Chen (2001-4) and Xu Yuhua (2006-8).
Beginning 2010, the Women's World Chess Championship will be held annually in alternating formats. In even years a 64 player knock out system will be used, in the odd years a classical match featuring only two players will be held.
The 2011 edition will be contested between the 2010 champion Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy of India next month
Batang Pinoy Our kiddie journalist, KC Morala, who is an excellent chess player sent in this report.
“Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano of USC and KeithClaire Carlisle Morala of USJ-R, emerge as the champions in the first Batang Pinoy Chess Tournament in Cebu, held this October 1, 2011 in the Cebu City Sports Complex.
In the girls category, Morala stages her own comeback. Though she lost her first round to fellow Josenian Sharon Princess Lee Pacres, it turned out to be the only speck on the girl’s category champion, having defeated the rest of her opponents.
Placing second was Queenylyn Torres of Abellana National High School, who seemingly had a hard time coping with the tournament’s 20 minute time limit on the first rounds, resulting to her losses due to time forfeit. Pacres settles as the third placer.
Torres, Pacres and another player from UC, Marvie Abucay, were supposedly tied with the record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, yet it was Torres who wins in the tiebreak for having defeated the other two.
Jazzelle Villarin of USC, who led her school’s team into the top in the Little Milo Olympics, unfortunately fell behind the others after losing her matches to Abucay, Torres and Morala .
Meanwhile, next to the 14-year-old child wonder Sevillano and running second was Felix Shaun Balbona, representative of USJ-R in the boys category. The two players will be be sent in Dumaguete together with Morala and Torres to represent Cebu in the Regional chessfest.”
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
They shouldn't play chess, you know. They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man.
There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat."
Robert Fischer,1962
Chess is a man`s game. It does not have the same appeal to women and why this is so is somewhat of a mystery.
The ratio of chess playing women to men is about 1:30 and may be even less as there are only 3 women in the top 300 players.
The main reason is probably biological or genetic as there is no satisfactory answer(s). Physical strength is not needed in chess and according to some studies women have more endurance than men.
Also, according tho WGM Natalia Pogogina,if we look at the percentage of so-called “grandmaster draws” among women and men then we’ll see that women’s fighting spirits are definitely higher
So, maybe women are just less smart than men? On the average the answer is “no”. Then what’s the problem?
The answer seems to be psychological and the upbringing of girls compared to boys. A stereotype exists in chess that women are no match for men. It is based on statistical data. That’s why many female chess players are taught from early childhood that they’ll never make it to men’s level. Parents deem chess as a strange pastime for a girl,
There is even an amusing hypothesis that chess is for immature and weird people, so women (who tend to mature faster than men) don’t take up such a strange occupation.
Fide Has however not entirely neglected Women chess. We have a Women Grand Prix the same as men and a women world championship Cycle.
In the last 10 years the Chinese have dominated Women chess. The current champion is 17 year old Hou Yifan.
Past Champions were Xie Jun (1991-96), Zhu Chen (2001-4) and Xu Yuhua (2006-8).
Beginning 2010, the Women's World Chess Championship will be held annually in alternating formats. In even years a 64 player knock out system will be used, in the odd years a classical match featuring only two players will be held.
The 2011 edition will be contested between the 2010 champion Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy of India next month
Batang Pinoy Our kiddie journalist, KC Morala, who is an excellent chess player sent in this report.
“Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano of USC and KeithClaire Carlisle Morala of USJ-R, emerge as the champions in the first Batang Pinoy Chess Tournament in Cebu, held this October 1, 2011 in the Cebu City Sports Complex.
In the girls category, Morala stages her own comeback. Though she lost her first round to fellow Josenian Sharon Princess Lee Pacres, it turned out to be the only speck on the girl’s category champion, having defeated the rest of her opponents.
Placing second was Queenylyn Torres of Abellana National High School, who seemingly had a hard time coping with the tournament’s 20 minute time limit on the first rounds, resulting to her losses due to time forfeit. Pacres settles as the third placer.
Torres, Pacres and another player from UC, Marvie Abucay, were supposedly tied with the record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, yet it was Torres who wins in the tiebreak for having defeated the other two.
Jazzelle Villarin of USC, who led her school’s team into the top in the Little Milo Olympics, unfortunately fell behind the others after losing her matches to Abucay, Torres and Morala .
Meanwhile, next to the 14-year-old child wonder Sevillano and running second was Felix Shaun Balbona, representative of USJ-R in the boys category. The two players will be be sent in Dumaguete together with Morala and Torres to represent Cebu in the Regional chessfest.”
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Jojo Muralla new Cepca president
The Cebu Executives and Professional Chess Association Inc. (Cepca) Recently elected a new set of officers for 2011-12 at their clubhouse in Mabolo last week.
The new set of officers ,who are also members of the Board of Trustees are Romualdo “Jojo” Muralla Jr.-president, Fabio Abucejo-Internal Vice- president, Jun Kidlat-External Vice- President,Dante Arguelles-Secretary. Ellery Berciles-Treasurer, Ogie Reyes –Auditor and Chessmoso-PRO. Other members of the Board are Jun Olis-Chairman Membership Committee and Mandy Baria –Chairman- Finance Committee.
Cepca is one of the oldest chess clubs in the country being founded in 1990 and has about 100 members.
The original founding members were Chessmoso. Art Ynclino, Sonny Sollano (+), Loy Minoza, Alex Tolentino, Gerry Tomakin (+), Antonio Climaco and Danny Pestano.
Aside from the regular members we also have honorary members who are also avid chess players and hold important positions both in government and the private sector. They are current Mayor Michael Rama,former Mayor Alvin Garcia, NM Matias “Bombi” Aznar (+) ,former Chairman of Southwestern University, businessman and Sportsman for this year Boojie Lim of Rose Pharmacy, businessman Kelly Uy of Cebu Progress Marketing and US based Dr. Darcy Tabotabo.
Past presidents of the club were Charter President Boy Pestano(2 consecutive terms),Alex Tolentino,Ben Dimaano, Gerry Tomakin (+),Ogie Reyes, Danny Pestano, Antonio Climaco, Manny Manzanares(2 terms and past president) , Victor Legaspina, Jun Olis(2 consecutive terms), Norway Lara, Mandy Baria, Emmanuel Matuco, Bobot Villaluna( +-2 terms).
Jojo finished a medical course in SWU (BSMT) with full scholarship because he was a varsity chess player and was also a 3rd year law student.
He worked for 15 years in the corporate world and is presently a businessman and exporter of fresh mangoes to other countries.
He is married to Nenen Saren and has a pretty and talented daughter Mary Grace.
Aside from chess he is a range officer and competitive shooter. He has participated in Australasia (level 4)competition and all over the country. He placed 2nd in the National Range Officer competition 2 years ago.
In his schooldays, he was team captain and board 1 player of the CSJ-R chess high school team and their team was champion for 4 consecutive years (1977-81) in the Cebu Catholic Schools Athletcs Association. In college his team SWU became the 1st ever team champion in the National UAAP in 1984. He was the team captain and board 3 player then.
Dante Arguelles ,the new club secretary,is not only one of the top players of the club but can also compete with the class A players of Cebu.
He has been a member since 1996 and has held various positions in the club.
He was twice Cepca Grand Slam Champion and was quarterfinalist in the Cebu Chess King several years ago. He once won a Rose Pharmacy Open and was a gold medalist in a commercial team tournament in Cebu.
Wife is Remedios and has 4 children: Pamela-who is working at Marina Bay in Singapore, Jhoanna –a real estate agent, Rochelle Michael and Dan Anthony ,a registered nurse in Gleneagle hospital in Singapore.
Ellery “Jame Bond” Berciles is married to state prosecutor ,Cecilia, and is a businessman.
They have 3 beautiful daughters- Jeane, Cherry and Janina- who are all Flight Stewardess working in Cathay Pacific, UAE airlines and Qatar Airlines respectively. Only son Elton is into computers and auto detailing.
Ogie Reyes, Jun Olis and Mandy Baria are all engineers and were past presidents of the club. Fabio Abucejo and Jun Kidlat are both retired from government service.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
The new set of officers ,who are also members of the Board of Trustees are Romualdo “Jojo” Muralla Jr.-president, Fabio Abucejo-Internal Vice- president, Jun Kidlat-External Vice- President,Dante Arguelles-Secretary. Ellery Berciles-Treasurer, Ogie Reyes –Auditor and Chessmoso-PRO. Other members of the Board are Jun Olis-Chairman Membership Committee and Mandy Baria –Chairman- Finance Committee.
Cepca is one of the oldest chess clubs in the country being founded in 1990 and has about 100 members.
The original founding members were Chessmoso. Art Ynclino, Sonny Sollano (+), Loy Minoza, Alex Tolentino, Gerry Tomakin (+), Antonio Climaco and Danny Pestano.
Aside from the regular members we also have honorary members who are also avid chess players and hold important positions both in government and the private sector. They are current Mayor Michael Rama,former Mayor Alvin Garcia, NM Matias “Bombi” Aznar (+) ,former Chairman of Southwestern University, businessman and Sportsman for this year Boojie Lim of Rose Pharmacy, businessman Kelly Uy of Cebu Progress Marketing and US based Dr. Darcy Tabotabo.
Past presidents of the club were Charter President Boy Pestano(2 consecutive terms),Alex Tolentino,Ben Dimaano, Gerry Tomakin (+),Ogie Reyes, Danny Pestano, Antonio Climaco, Manny Manzanares(2 terms and past president) , Victor Legaspina, Jun Olis(2 consecutive terms), Norway Lara, Mandy Baria, Emmanuel Matuco, Bobot Villaluna( +-2 terms).
Jojo finished a medical course in SWU (BSMT) with full scholarship because he was a varsity chess player and was also a 3rd year law student.
He worked for 15 years in the corporate world and is presently a businessman and exporter of fresh mangoes to other countries.
He is married to Nenen Saren and has a pretty and talented daughter Mary Grace.
Aside from chess he is a range officer and competitive shooter. He has participated in Australasia (level 4)competition and all over the country. He placed 2nd in the National Range Officer competition 2 years ago.
In his schooldays, he was team captain and board 1 player of the CSJ-R chess high school team and their team was champion for 4 consecutive years (1977-81) in the Cebu Catholic Schools Athletcs Association. In college his team SWU became the 1st ever team champion in the National UAAP in 1984. He was the team captain and board 3 player then.
Dante Arguelles ,the new club secretary,is not only one of the top players of the club but can also compete with the class A players of Cebu.
He has been a member since 1996 and has held various positions in the club.
He was twice Cepca Grand Slam Champion and was quarterfinalist in the Cebu Chess King several years ago. He once won a Rose Pharmacy Open and was a gold medalist in a commercial team tournament in Cebu.
Wife is Remedios and has 4 children: Pamela-who is working at Marina Bay in Singapore, Jhoanna –a real estate agent, Rochelle Michael and Dan Anthony ,a registered nurse in Gleneagle hospital in Singapore.
Ellery “Jame Bond” Berciles is married to state prosecutor ,Cecilia, and is a businessman.
They have 3 beautiful daughters- Jeane, Cherry and Janina- who are all Flight Stewardess working in Cathay Pacific, UAE airlines and Qatar Airlines respectively. Only son Elton is into computers and auto detailing.
Ogie Reyes, Jun Olis and Mandy Baria are all engineers and were past presidents of the club. Fabio Abucejo and Jun Kidlat are both retired from government service.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Shell highlights ; Svidler wins World Cup
Earlier I wrote that since 1992, the Shell companies in the Philippines have promoted and sponsored the biggest annual competition among kiddies and juniors held in strategically located sites nationwide. To date, tens of thousands of youngsters have been motivated and credit chess playing as an activity that has positively contributed to enriching their lives.
Children have come to appreciate the values that the game of chess has taught them. Discipline. Diligence. Sense of fair play. Maturity. Responsibility.
Among the winners who have gained individual prominence are GM Wesley So,GM Nelson Mariano III, GM Mark Paragua,GM Darwin Laylo ,GM John Paul Gomez,IM Ian Cris Udani, FM Ildefonso Datu, NM Onofre Espiritu Jr., NM Arlan Cabe, NM Rodolfo Panopio Jr., NM Elmer Sumangat, NM Rodolfo Diaz Jr., NM Virgilio Vuelban, NM Exfelicos Bolico, NM Romeo Alcodia, NM Herbert Ciocon, NM Roland Perez and NM Roland Castro.
KeithClaire Morala , Our kiddie chess player who aspires to be a sports journalist,sent in this report.
“UV Lancers Alfer Joseph Fernandez and Michael Silvaderio prevailed in the Juniors Boys Division held in SM last September 10-11.
Both players had 6 wins and two draws in the 8-round tourney. Just a half point behind and finishing third, fourth and fifth were Yves Christian Fiel, King James Torres and Yuri Cauba.
Meanwhile, Allan Pason from Pajo National High School seized victory in the Kiddies Boys Division with 7.5 points,followed by Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano and fellow 6.5-pointers Jethro Esplenada and Alson Vincent Lim.
On the other hand, USJR’s Jessa Marie Balbona was the victor of the Juniors Girls Division. Hot on pursuit were 6 pointer Mary Israel Palero and Ma. Olympia Harvey Jane Hilvano with 5.5 pts.
10-year-old Vic Glysen Derotas of USC finished as solo 6.5 pointer, grabbing the champion trophy for the Kiddies Girls Division. KeithClaire Carlisle Morala with 6 points was declared 1st runner-up followed by Armi Venice Lumapac with 5.5 points.
Silvaderio and Fernandez finish their matches with an amazing record of 6 wins, two draws and no loss in their division.
Pason, a Palarong Pambansa 2011 competitor, drew his match against Sevillano, making it the only speck on his no-loss record of 7.5 points in the 8-round event.
Roxanne Tampus, also a Palarong Pambansa 2011 player, was unfortunately defeated by Hilvano on the last round, losing her chance to be the unquestionable victor of the Juniors Girls Division.
Fernandez, Silvaderio, Pason, Sevillano, Balbona and Derotas will be sent to Manila to compete with other players nationwide in the Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship.”
World Cup Peter Svidler won the FIDE World Cup 2011 after drawing the 4th game of the final against Alexander Grischuk . He won with a score of 2.5-1.5 in a 4-game match .
Vassily Ivanchuk managed to draw a difficult ending for the second time against Ruslan Ponomariov and finished third with the same score and qualified for the next FIDE Candidates tournament together with Svidler and Grischuk.
Svidler officially won US $120,000 but as 20% goes to FIDE, he actually pocketed 'only' $96,000. Grischuk won net $64,000, and both Ivanchuk and Ponomariov net $40,000.
And so after three gruelling weeks the World Cup is finally over. There were 128 elite qualifiers from 46 different countries including pinoys Wesley So and Mark Paragua who both won $8,000 and $4,800 respectively.
Svidler's path to the final was tough.He beat the experienced Darcy Lima and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Fabiano Caruana Gata Kamsky, Judit Polgar ,Ruslan Ponomariov and then finally Grischuk.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
Children have come to appreciate the values that the game of chess has taught them. Discipline. Diligence. Sense of fair play. Maturity. Responsibility.
Among the winners who have gained individual prominence are GM Wesley So,GM Nelson Mariano III, GM Mark Paragua,GM Darwin Laylo ,GM John Paul Gomez,IM Ian Cris Udani, FM Ildefonso Datu, NM Onofre Espiritu Jr., NM Arlan Cabe, NM Rodolfo Panopio Jr., NM Elmer Sumangat, NM Rodolfo Diaz Jr., NM Virgilio Vuelban, NM Exfelicos Bolico, NM Romeo Alcodia, NM Herbert Ciocon, NM Roland Perez and NM Roland Castro.
KeithClaire Morala , Our kiddie chess player who aspires to be a sports journalist,sent in this report.
“UV Lancers Alfer Joseph Fernandez and Michael Silvaderio prevailed in the Juniors Boys Division held in SM last September 10-11.
Both players had 6 wins and two draws in the 8-round tourney. Just a half point behind and finishing third, fourth and fifth were Yves Christian Fiel, King James Torres and Yuri Cauba.
Meanwhile, Allan Pason from Pajo National High School seized victory in the Kiddies Boys Division with 7.5 points,followed by Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano and fellow 6.5-pointers Jethro Esplenada and Alson Vincent Lim.
On the other hand, USJR’s Jessa Marie Balbona was the victor of the Juniors Girls Division. Hot on pursuit were 6 pointer Mary Israel Palero and Ma. Olympia Harvey Jane Hilvano with 5.5 pts.
10-year-old Vic Glysen Derotas of USC finished as solo 6.5 pointer, grabbing the champion trophy for the Kiddies Girls Division. KeithClaire Carlisle Morala with 6 points was declared 1st runner-up followed by Armi Venice Lumapac with 5.5 points.
Silvaderio and Fernandez finish their matches with an amazing record of 6 wins, two draws and no loss in their division.
Pason, a Palarong Pambansa 2011 competitor, drew his match against Sevillano, making it the only speck on his no-loss record of 7.5 points in the 8-round event.
Roxanne Tampus, also a Palarong Pambansa 2011 player, was unfortunately defeated by Hilvano on the last round, losing her chance to be the unquestionable victor of the Juniors Girls Division.
Fernandez, Silvaderio, Pason, Sevillano, Balbona and Derotas will be sent to Manila to compete with other players nationwide in the Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship.”
World Cup Peter Svidler won the FIDE World Cup 2011 after drawing the 4th game of the final against Alexander Grischuk . He won with a score of 2.5-1.5 in a 4-game match .
Vassily Ivanchuk managed to draw a difficult ending for the second time against Ruslan Ponomariov and finished third with the same score and qualified for the next FIDE Candidates tournament together with Svidler and Grischuk.
Svidler officially won US $120,000 but as 20% goes to FIDE, he actually pocketed 'only' $96,000. Grischuk won net $64,000, and both Ivanchuk and Ponomariov net $40,000.
And so after three gruelling weeks the World Cup is finally over. There were 128 elite qualifiers from 46 different countries including pinoys Wesley So and Mark Paragua who both won $8,000 and $4,800 respectively.
Svidler's path to the final was tough.He beat the experienced Darcy Lima and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Fabiano Caruana Gata Kamsky, Judit Polgar ,Ruslan Ponomariov and then finally Grischuk.
boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com
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