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:
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Congratulations and more power to Pinoy Chess Club Online :)
Copyright 2013 Kraig Quinain
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