The Philippine International Chess Championships reels off on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 at around 2pm the Subic Bay Peninsular Hotel, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City, Zambales. 

Opening ceremony will be grace by Congressman Prospero “Butch” A. Pichay, Jr.,Chairman and President of National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) together with other NCFP Board of Directors and Officials, Secretary General Congressman Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, Vice-President for Luzon Atty. Ruel V. Canobas, Grassroots Development and Promotions Committee Chairman Congressman Neri Javier Colmenares and Deputy Sec. Gen. Red Dumuk

The nine round swiss tournament is the first of the twin tournaments being organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and supported financially by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) headed by its Chairman, the Honorable William “Butch” Ramirez and under the auspices of Federation Internationale Des Eches (FIDE). The next international tournament is slated on December 12-19, 2016 at the same Venue.

To see action in this prestigious event are Grandmasters from different continents and countries led by Super Grandmaster Wang Hao (2678) China, GM Anton Demchenko (2629)  Russia, GM Boris Savchenko (2613) Russia, GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (2611) Georgia, GM Levan Pantsulaia (2607) Georgia, GM Kovalev Vladislav (2603) Belarus, GM Merab Gagunashvili (2588) Georgia, GM Kirill Stupak (2562) Belarus, GM Tigran Kotanjyan (2473) Armenia, GM Sriram Jha (2416) India, International Master Tran Tuan Minh (2478) Vietnam, IM Abhimanyu Puranik (2476) India, FIDE Master Tran Minh Thang (2399) Vietnam, Harshit Harnish Raja (2399) India, FM Lee Qing Aun (2227) Singapore. 

The China’s 3rd rank Woman Grandmaster Lei Tingjie, WGM S.Vijayalakshmi (2381) India and WIM Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva (2274) Uzbekistan will also compete.

Filipino woodpushers will be spearheaded by living legend Asia’s First Grandmaster GM Eugene Torre who just won the Bronze medal in World Chess Olympiad in Baku Azerbaijan together with Philippines’ First Woman World Chess Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna, expected to play from the Philippines are GM Mark Paragua, GM John Paul Gomez, GM Joey Antonio, GM Darwin Laylo, IM Paulo Bersamina, IM Oliver Dimakiling, IM Haridas Pascua, IM Jerad Docena, IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia and International Master Ricardo De Guzman.

The objective of this annual tournament is to give an exposure and a chance for our talented and young upcoming players to get their GM norms/ titles as well as to increase their FIDE rating. Likewise, this International tournament has a challenger division for players with a FIDE rating of 2199 below to allow them and gain experience from this competitive tourney.