Challenge accepted. Ateneo’s Woodpushers brace themselves for coming of this season’s UAAP tournament, especially since the occupation of rookies after the loss of several veteran players. Photo by Tim Arafiles

TWO PLAYERS, one board game, 16 pawns: though one may not break a sweat, or exert more than just flick of a finger at game’s end, who is to say that this highly tactical—and, at times, technical—game does not require just as much effort and determination as other sports?

In the UAAP season 74 chess championships, the Blue Woodpushers will have the herculean task of dethroning five-peat champions, FEU. A more immediate challenge that the team would face however, is the loss of several key players. One of them is seasoned veteran Ceradee Camacho, who—with her decorated international background and dominance on the collegiate scene, helping the Woodpushers win on a number of occasions—will be sorely missed.

As a result, the Blue Woodpushers now find themselves equipped with youthful—but nonetheless talented—new recruits.

Fresh faces

This season, around half of the men’s team is comprised of freshmen. Despite the disadvantage of youth and inexperience, the young Woodpushers are eager to follow the path, or hopefully exceed the performances, of their seniors from the previous season.

Freshman Lance Sese states, ”I’m doing my best to catch up to the shadows of my veteran teammates. We are playing this season all-heart even though the team is composed mostly of rookies.” He adds that the rookies want to show what they are made of, making sure they won’t disappoint.

Early work

The team began training as early as April. Along with the drastic change of players, practices have been more frequent and have been amplified to produce better results.

Senior Emmanuel Plan shares, “We have been under intensive training since summer, since we lost some of our key players last season.”

The hard work of the team is evident in every training session, as each individual is driven to his or her potential. Everyone, especially the rookies, are being pushed further into breaking out of their maximum capabilities.

Plan continues in Filipino, “This year’s team includes a lot of new players. We don’t know how well they’re going to perform, but we hope that the eight months of training has pulled off.”

Stepping down

While chess is an individual sport, the Woodpushers train together as a group to polish each other’s skills and provide a deeper analysis of each other’s game. More so, the rookies are given the chance to step up, keeping the team in sync.

“The challenge for us is that sometimes, it seems like training has leveled down, since half of the team are veterans and half are rookies,” says Plan.

However, despite the abundance of inexperienced players, Plan says that the team continues to improve and sharpen up, especially the rookies.

One Big Fight

“We have been doubling out time in training so I really hope we see good outputs in the UAAP,” Plan says.

These athletes are evidently ready and pumped up for this season’s UAAP. For his part, Rookie Lance Sese assures the community: “Since we lost some of our key players from last season, I cannot guarantee that we will win it all the way. However, one thing’s for sure. We will do our very best until the end. The game is not over until it’s over.”