by Marlon Bernardino
MANILA---The biggest chess competition in the Philippines this year - the Maharlika Pilipinas Chess League (MPCL) dubbed as the Manny Pacquiao International Open Chess Festival gets underway on December 13 at the Family Country Hotel in General Santos City.
"We expect this year's competition to be just as successful," said Maharlika Pilipinas Chess League President International Master Hamed Nouri.
IM Nouri and fellow organizers Alex Dinoy said this is the first of many tournaments planned by the MPCL. In fact, they are planning to stage at least three more international tournaments next year.
Vitaliy Bernadskiy of Ukraine (Elo 2615) will lead foreign-based grandmasters (GM) that includes Hovhannes Gabuzyan of Armenia (Elo 2586), Lucas Van Foreest of the Netherlands (Elo 2577), Vitaly Sivuk of Sweden (Elo 2570) and Luigi Basso Pier of Italy (Elo 2516).
Other early registrants were International Masters (IM) Daniel Bryant of the USA (Elo 2413) and Dragos Ceres of Moldova (Elo 2412), Wee Zhun Teh of Malaysia (Elo 1908) and Edgardo Borigas of Hongkong (Elo 1734).
Host Philippines will be represented IM Kim Steven Yap (Elo 2373), IM Ricardo De Guzman (Elo 2328), IM Cris Ramayrat (Elo 2327), FM Mari Joseph Turqueza (Elo 2309), FM David Elorta (Elo 2274), IM Eric Labog Jr. (2229) and FM Jeth Romy Morado (Elo 2212).
A whopping $100,000 or P4.2 million will be up for grabs in the five-day (Dec. 13-17) event that is expected to draw participation from around 100 players in the Open division and 180 participants in the side events.
"For five days, General Santos will be the chess center of the world and we look forward to hosting the tournament of brilliant minds," said boxing icon and former senator Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao, who will celebrate his 44th birthday on the final day of the tournament.
Pacquiao thanked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Philippine Sports Commission chairman Noli Eala and National Chess Federation of the Philippines chairman and president Prospero Pichay Jr. for supporting the chessfest.
The open event will stake a cash pool of P3.4 million with P1.14 million going to the champion while giving out a total of P800,000 in the side event where the eventual titlist will be getting a cool P300,000.
Apart from the champion, the top 20 finishers will also get a prize along with the best category winners for kiddies (under-14), ladies, juniors (under-20), seniors (60-above) and top local players from General Santos City.-Marlon Bernardino-
IM Kim Steven Yap (Elo 2373) gunning his second Grandmaster norm in the Maharlika Pilipinas Chess League (MPCL) dubbed as the Manny Pacquiao International Open Chess Festival gets underway on December 13 at the Family Country Hotel in General Santos City.
The Cebuano International Master got his first GM norm during the Berkeley Chess School 2018 Summer IM/GM Norm Tournament in Berkeley, California.