Unusual tournaments this December
LAST Dec. 4, Cepca sponsored a Kiddies-only tournament that had four categories, namely Boys 15-Under,Boys 10-Under,Girls 15-Under and Girls 10-Under.
The format starting tomorrow at 1 p.m , at Deep Blue,SM City, is a two-game knockout system, starting with a limited participation of 64 players on a first come, first served basis. Time control is 25 minutes plus 5 seconds increment. Registration is P 300.
Prizes are P10,000 for the champion and P5,000 for second place, The two semifinalists will get P2,000 each and the four quarterfinalists will take home P1,000 each. The bottom eight of top 16 will get a consolation prize of P500.
The top favorites are Kimkim Yap,Merben Roque, Rommel Ganzon and Edsel Montoya.
The sponsors are Atty. Boy Tan, Alex Choachoy, Engr. Ehte Dominguito, Dr. Ken Cellona, Judge Ireneo Gako, Carlos Tan, Nestor Encallado, Arnold Lauron, Excel Canque and Lets Paint.
On Sunday, Cepca will have its much awaited Grand Finals among the monthly winners in Group A and B. There will also be a separate non-qualifiers tournament participated also by invited ladies varsity players and kiddies. The venue is the newly-opened Knight Attack Chess Café at the third floor of Robinsons Galleria
Group A qualifiers are Rosendo Yamyamin, Amado Olea, Arnold Cadiz, Peterson Sia, Carlo Maraat, Jojo Muralla, Rogelio Enriquez, Silverstein Torres and Ben Dimaano. The committee will make it 12 and the other players will be chosen from among the Cepca children and other members.
The Group B qualifiers are Bong San Pascual, Percival Fiel, Romulo Pialan, Mario Bustillo, Ruel Hortelano, Richard Ouano, Jun Kidlat, Jerry Maratas, Edwin Cablao, Manuel Abucay, Denster Abella and Jojo Paredes.
There will be prizes and trophies for the winners of each group and appliances will also be raffled out.
After the tournament, we will all proceed to White Gold house for our Christmas party, awarding of prizes and induction of new members.
On Dec. 22 and 23 will be the Battle of chess Veterans 55 and up sponsored by Boojie Lim of Rose Pharmacy. The format is seven rounds Swiss with handicapping time controls--Class A 10 minutes, Class B 20 minutes and Class C 30 minutes.
The venue is also the newly opened Knight Attack Chess Café at Robinson Galleria. Registration is P200. Games starts at 1pm.
The champion will get P15,000, while the next two placers get P10,000 and P5,000 respectively. The fourth placer will get P3,000 and the fifth placer will get P2,000. The sixth to 10th placers will get P1,000 each, while the 11th to 20th placers will get P500 each.
The top veteran favorites are Pipo Moreno, Mario Mangubat, Erwin Ababat and Lincoln Yap, who just arrived from Singapore.
The regulars will still have their fun on Dec. 22 also starting 4 pm at the same venue. This time, the format is seven rounds Swiss Blitz with handicapping time controls--Class A two minutes, Class B three minutes and Class C five minutes.
The prizes are P5,000, P3,000 and P2,000 for the top three and P1,000 each for the fourth to sixth placers. The seventh to 11th placers get P500 each.
LONDON CHESS CLASSIC. The final leg of the Grand Chess Tour, The London Classic, is now at its midway point and the sole leader is Wesley So (2794) at 3.5/5.
Tied at second are Levon Aronian (2785) and Fabiano Caruana (2823) with 3.0/5, while Anish Giri (2771), Vishy Anand (2779), Hikaru Nakamura (2779) and Vladimir Kramnik (2809) are tied at fourth to seventh places at 2.5/5. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2804) and Michael Adams (2748) are tied for eighth to ninth places with 2/5 and the cellar dweller is Veselin Topalov (2760) with 0/5.
At the start of the year, Wesley’s main target was to reach a rating of 2800 before yearend and he has accomplished this! His live rating is now 2805.