Saturday, June 29, 2013

P100k Engr. Blas Hipulan Tournament Begins


THE 100k PESOS CHESS TOURNAMENT swiftly became an exciting event yesterday, at SM City Cebu. Sponsored by one of Cebu chess' notable sponsors, Engr. Blas Hipulan, the tournament attracted a lot of strong chess masters  in the Philippines, like IMs Oliver Dimakiling, Immanuel Emperado, and Cebu's 2nd Grandmaster, Richard Bitoon. Other notable players there were NMs Rusum Tolentino and Nelson Villanueva.

NM Nelson Villanueva (De La Salle chess coach)

In round 1, high-schooler Jethro Claro beat NM Merben Roque while another high-schooler, Daniel Lorenzo Minoza beat a +2300 player! Woww!! What a major upset in the first round! 
To get a full glimpse of the participants of this tournament, I decided to upload the starting rank list of the players:


Take note that both seeded No. 9 and No. 10 are actually FIDE Masters! While seeded #17-20 and #23 are NMs. Maybe they simply didn't want to brag about their titles?? Hmmm...  Moreover, we see the notable Marvin Ting at #44. Marvin Ting by the way, had just won the Challengers Cup at Bangkok last May. So I think he is one player that should not be taken lightly :)

Here's a photo I've taken from the lone GM participant in in the event:
GM Bitoon: "I will crush you all..."

...and here's a list of the PRIZES and MECHANICS of the event:




Remember that high-schooler I mentioned, who beat NM Roque? Well here's a pic of him.

Jethro Claro
No wonder he beat NM Merben Roque, because he has another set of eyes! (It's the eyeglasses, hehehe)

The pride of Silay City, Negros. Can you name him? Clue: He's an FM with initials S.S...

The forever interesting and eccentric NM of Cebu: Cyril Ortega (Although I must argue that the most interesting NM in the Philippines is no other than the half-crazy idiotic-genius, Victor Lluch! (Yes, you can google his name :)


    A pride of Cebu, Richard Natividad (2289)

To get the full results for the rest of the event, just click here
By the way, I'd like to also share an update on the Pinoy Chess Club Online Tournment (Ladies Edition!) >>>


for more details, you can look up Noel Morales @ Facebook.

  

© 2013 by Kraig Quinain


Sunday, June 9, 2013

Pinoy Chess Club Online

     Pinoy woodpushers who are extremely fond of "facebooking" (that's what kids call it nowadays;) are perhaps familiar with the facebook page, Pinoy Chess Club Online. The page is exclusive to our beloved Filipino netizens and offers some daily puzzles, camaraderie (chess camaraderie that is.), and regular small prized tournaments, with 1k for the champion online. The page was started by a naive chess arbiter back then, Noel Morales who has now become one of the most familiar chess arbiters in the Philippines (the internet has its own way of making people known) Since then, the page has gained several members from Grandmasters, to local hustlers at your chess club. There are some masters who play in the blitz tournaments organized by the page despite the meager 1k prize. Chess masters Sander Severino and Rolzon Roullo are among its regular participants. Here is a poster of their just concluded "small money" blitz tournaments.


     As you can see in the poster, the champion gets a humble one thousand pesos. The second placer gets 500php, and the 3rd to 5th placers all get cellphone loads. The time controls are extremely fast, with only 2 minutes for each player (not recommended for those who prefer "real blitz" with 5 minutes on the clock). The registration is free, making a lot of chess enthusiasts eager to join. The downside though in these tournaments, are its small prizes, which doesn't get  much attention towards very strong players like GM's and NM's. And why am I saying this? It's because I think it is good for a tournament to have some masters playing in it so that, whenever amateurs lose to them, at least we would gain some experience There are a few of them though, who participate only every once in a while... but hey, the tournaments are free!

Note: You have to get used to though, in playing on the free chess website Chess.com as all the games would be played there.

     To those of you who are interested to  join the club's facebook group page, the group can be easily searched on facebook (!).

      To get a feel of exactly the density of players immersed in these tournaments, here's a "standings list" in one of those tournaments at Pinoy Chess Club Online:
click to enlarge

Congratulations and more power to Pinoy Chess Club Online :)

Copyright 2013 Kraig Quinain