NEXT MONTH, alumni from the Ateneo Men’s Chess Team and the De La Salle University (DLSU) Men’s Chess Team are set to compete in a two-day online chess tournament hosted by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP). The event will be conducted via lichess.org and will be live streamed via the NCFP Facebook group on September 5 and 6 at 8:00 PM.
Ateneo and DLSU will each be fielding 12 players to don their respective school colors in a 12-round Scheveningen system tournament. In this variation of chess, players will face each opponent only once, with a win garnering one point and a draw receiving half a point. Whichever team accumulates the higher score at the end of the tournament will be declared the victor.
The tournament also features some player restrictions. Each team may only have an average chess player’s rating of 2,000. The ratings will come from either the International Chess Federation (FIDE) or the NCFP, with a player’s final rating determined by whichever rating is higher.
Ateneo Team Captain Gavin Ong shared that this Ateneo-DLSU alumni matchup has already taken place in previous years but was shelved for the past five years. The last tournament dates back to 2015.
With the event’s revival this year, the collegiate rivals teamed up with NCFP Executive Director Atty. Cliburn Orbe to officially revamp the tournament as a fundraiser for the Munting Agila Program. The program’s primary objective is to equip NCFP scholars with the necessary skills and training to excel in the sport. With the ongoing pandemic disrupting the Munting Agila Program due to the lack of equipment, the fundraiser will provide equipment such as laptops and other devices essential to the chess training and schooling of NCFP scholars.
“Right now the issue is I think wala silang pera pambili ng mga laptops. Kasi nga everything is online now, so the kids have no means of studying chess. So we want to really promote chess in the sense that we want to help these kids play. (They do not have money to buy laptops. Everything is online now, so the kids have no means of learning chess. So we want to really promote chess in the sense that we want to help these kids play),” Ong said.
Currently, the two teams have raised a total amount of Php 24,000 collected from each participant’s Php 1,000 tournament fee. The players have also committed to searching for more sponsors who could help fund the event. With this, the team has shared the necessary bank account details on the Ateneo Chess Team’s official Facebook page.
Team Ateneo – IM Jem Garcia (2456 N), FM Peter Long (2282 F), Cris Aspiras (2200 N), Leonard Reyes (2098 N), AGM Rey Reyes (2057 N), Rem Marquez (1990 N), Jolo Lat (1881 N), Ricki Yao (1842 N), Dan Navarro (1832 N), AGM Gavin Ong (1831 N), Joey Rodriguez (1800 unrated), Kiefe Tan (1763 N),
Team Elo Average: 1999.58
Team DLSU – GM John Paul Gomez (2470 N), WIM Jan Jodilyn Fronda (2145 N), WFM Cherry Ann Mejia (2114 N), Christian Nanola (2114 N), AGM Glenn Lemen (2020 N), Tyrone Guya (2001 N), Nonoy Rafael (1983 US), Paolo Bautista (1855 N), Ted Castro (1814 F), Jefferson Chua (1800 unrated), Anjo Nuestro (1741 N), Avelino Tolentino (1650 F)
Team Elo Average 1975.58
