-Iloilo's Gallon misses Empire State Chess championship by 

half point.

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Another Filipino chess player nearly wrapped up the 35th Empire City Open Under 2100 title missing it by the skin of the teeth in Madison Square Garden here on December 27-29, 2016.

"I am convinced, the way one plays chess always reflects the player's personality. If something defines his character, then it will also define his way of playing."

--Vladimir Kramnik

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Some of the strongest chess players in the Philippines today are now based here and are making waves in various tournaments participated by the world's best.

In fact, the Philippines can form two chess teams in the Olympiad from their lineup.

For many of us, it’s the last thing we see before we go to sleep, the alarm that wakes us up, our connection to the world, our relentlessly thumbed companion. Dopamine-driving smartphones have created a sea of addicts. But some are more likely than others to have a smartphone problem.

It was a beautiful sunny spring day in Sheffield, England, when Tony Bland — aka Blandy — headed to Hillsborough Stadium for the semifinal football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989. The avid Liverpool supporter, 17, was excited to see a rematch of the semifinal game from the previous year. He had recently started working and saved his money so that he could afford to go in person.

It was late January when, in the beach-famous pulse of South Florida, the mayor of Miami held a town hall for the first task force to reduce opioid addiction in his community. “Laws need to be changed at the state,” Carlos Giménez told reporters. “We’ve had more opioid deaths in the last year than car crashes, than homicides.”

"Farewell, dearest friend, never to see one another any more till at the right hand of Christ."

--Donald Cargill

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- "I cried while seeing him in that very sad state."

Thus was the lamentation made by Block 22 NHA, Mandurriao village chief Ray Rico when he visited childhood friend and former classmate, Dr. Erwin "Tongtong" Plagata, in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Iloilo Mission Hospital in Iloilo City, Philippines May 14.