Chess Olympiad
Everytime a World Chess Olympiad is being staged, I just can’t help but get excited. Well you see, when we hosted the event here in 1992, I was part of the National team. The late PSC chairman Cecil Hechanova called me to his office and instructed me to proceed to Baguio City where our Philippine chess team was based. My mission was to train the team. My first reaction was to beg off since I don’t even know how to play “dama” but chairman Cecil said the team needs physical condition so they must be fit for the grueling games ahead and that my duty was to whip them into a well-oiled fighting machine. So the next day, I was off to the Haven of Rest , a 24- room mansion fronting the Botanical Garden in Leonard Wood. The team consisted of my “agaw” GM Eugene Torre, IM Joey Antonio, IM Banjo Barcenilla, Eric Gloria ,Petronio Roca, Econg Sevillano, Rico Mascarinas, Barlo Nadera, Manny Senador, Drigo Atutubo, Fernie Donguines, Roland Nolte, Chito Garma, the late Ruben Rodriguez and Maging Maga and Ricky De Guzman. The women’s team was headed by Cebuano Susan Itaas. At first, the team hated my presence as they were forced to jog the hills of Baguio, played basketball and did gym workouts. But soon they adjusted to the routine and missed the drills when I left for Manila. The physical conditioning really helped as we battled the giants of chess including the Russians led by world champ Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnick and the Indians bannered by Vishy Anand. As I write this column, the Philippine team is currently in Baku, Azerbaijan. As I write this column (Monday), the Philippines suffered a 1.5-2.5 loss to 14th seed Spain after eight rounds to slid to the top 50 after a strong start. This year’s chess team is composed of Torre, Gms Julio Sadorra and Banjo Barcenilla and IM Paulo Bersamina. Our best finish in the Olympics was seventh place in 1988 in Thessaloniki, Greece. On the other hand, our women’s team rebounded from a 1-3 shellacking at the hands of Hungary when it smashed Belgium, 4-0 to climb to 13th spot and could land in the top 10 if luck continues to be on our side.
HOWLING SUCCESS
The Elvis and Sinatra Serenade the Grandparents Show held last Saturday at the South Town Centre in Tabunok, Talisay City was a howling success. The jampacked crowd was treated to hits of yesteryears performed by Jhun Villahermosa, the Frank Sinatra of Cebu, Herbert Buot, the Perry Como of Cebu and Ate Ging Montesclaros, TV host of “As Time Goes By”. As usual, Elvisaya belted his rock and roll hits that made the oldies, dance. Host Sam Costanilla also made the crowd laugh with his stand-up comedy antics. With the success of the show, mall manager Tita Grace Labunog is now planning more shows for the group.
DID YOU KNOW?
Dawn Fraser of Australia who in 1962 became the first woman to swim the 100M freestyle competition in under a minute, was in a March 1964 car accident that killed her mother, knocked her sister unconscious, and chipped Dawn’s vertebrae. Her neck was in a plaster cast for six weeks. She went on to win her third consecutive gold medal in the 100m freestyle seven months later. MARVIN HAGLER the WBC took away Marvin Hagler’s world middleweight title after he outpointed Roberto Duran in their thrilling 1983 fight because the contest had been 15 rounds and not the WBC’s new required distance of 12 rounds.
CHARLES BARKLEY at 6’5”, is the shortest rebound champion in NBA history.