CHESS WONDER
Davao City’s youngest chess international master (IM) John Marvin Miciano was feted a citation in Tuesday’s SMC-PSA 2019 Awards Night in Manila
NATIONAL master (NM) at age 16. A Fide master (FM) and international master (IM) at 17.
Earning three prestigious chess titles in over one year was indeed no easy feat for Davao City woodpusher John Marvin Miciano.
He bagged the IM title after he emerged as open under-18 champion of the Asian Youth Championship at the Lotus Pang Suan Kaew Hotel in Chang Mai, Thailand last April 2018. But the title was conferred to him only after several months by Fide, the world governing body of chess.
The feat earned him a citation in the SMC-PSA 2019 Awards Night Tuesday, February 26, at Maynila Ballroom.
“I am thankful to the Philippine Sportswriters Association for the recognition given to me being the Asian Youth champion. It’s an inspiration for me to keep going and work harder to improve my level of play in my succeeding tournaments,” Miciano told SunStar Davao yesterday.
In his Asian Youth Championship debut, there were strong players from India, Vietnam, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Iran and they all joined since an outright IM title was at stake for the under-18 champion.
His FM title was awarded to him after topping the 2017 Penang Heritage City International Chess Open 2017 in Malaysia in January 2017 just barely a month after he earned his NM title in December 2016 following his championship victory in the 2016 Philippine International Open Challenger Division at the Subic Bay Peninsular Hotel.
The chess wonder, who finished his elementary education at the Ateneo de Davao University before he moved to Far Eastern University as a chess varsity scholar, is Fide-ranked men’s number 7 in the Philippines with a rating of 2459 as of June 11, 2018.
Miciano, only child of Juanito, a certified public accountant and a businessman, and Ma. Teresa, was also a consistent gold medalist in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (Uaap) in High School.
He was recently feted the most valuable player (MVP) award for winning the board 1 gold medal and steering FEU to a three-peat UAAP chess title win.
His ultimate dream of becoming a grand master (GM) just like his coach GM Jayson Gonzales is already in the works.
“My coach targets a GM title for me at age 20. This would entail a lot of hard work. I still have a lot to learn, read more books, practice more and join more tournaments.”
Being in the national chess developmental pool team also paved the way for him to compete in international tournaments.
In the next three years, he will eye three GM norms so he could fulfill his GM title dream.
Davao City has yet to produce one GM and Miciano is keeping that hope alive.