BAGUIO CITY – The oldest and longest-running chess tournament here will have its 48th staging this March.
Baguio Center Mall will be hosting anew the quarterly event that draws non-master chess players not just from Baguio but from Regions, I (Ilocos), II (Cagayan Valley), III (Central Luzon) and even the Southern Tagalog and Metro Manila area.
The event that offers at least PHP50,000 in cash prizes will be on March 6 and 7 at the mall’s event center.
More than 200 players including students as young as six years old will be seeing action, mall marketing manager Pamela Carino said.
Aside from the top 10 winners, the event will also reward the best senior, best junior player for high school and college players and the best female player.
“There is something to look forward to here, the 50th. I am eager to play there,” said University fo Baguio (UB) chess coach and former Palarong Pambansa player for Baguio Ronald Alvez, who has won in the event twice.
It was also in the same event that Alvez found a young International Master Haridas Pascua, whom he later trained as the latter achieved his master’s card.
“Everything is set,” Carino said of the tournament that started in 2007.
The event is held quarterly, the first quarter or the Panagbenga, the June event or close to Independence Day, the September event for Baguio Day and the Christmas presentation in December.
The event is one of the most anticipated chess tournaments in Northern Luzon that players from other regions troop up just to take part.
“But I am really interested in the 50th staging, I won’t be playing in the 48th and 49th but the 50th,” added Alvez, who is preparing his wards for the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association meet, which was postponed due to the novel coronavirus scare.
Meanwhile, the biggest tenpin bowling tournament north of Manila is expected to draw more than 150 players from as far as Cebu including the national team, said Summer Capital Tenpin Bowling Association president and Philippine Bowling Federation executive vice president Nikko Go.
“Everything is going just fine and we are ready to host the event on March 17-22,” Go said of the event to be held at the Puyat Center also at the Baguio Center Mall. (PNA)
