Monday, December 1, 2008

New Grandmaster: John Paul Gomez

With the recently concluded chess Olympiad, Philippines has a new Grandmaster. New GM John Paul Gomez.

Congratulations!


bloggerjakes

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Lower Than Expected Philippine Chess Olympiad Result

After the gruelling 11 rounds of game matches, Philippine contingent for Chess Olympiad was not succesful to improve its past Olympiad result.

This may be due to the fact that line up of chess players are young and new to the Olympiad. If only the seasoned and veteran Olympiads were field instead, will the result be better?

We will never know.


bloggerjakes

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Can Philippine Chess Olympiad Team place in Top 10?

The composition of the Philippine Chess Olympiad Team is mixture of new, young, and energetic chess players. Being young and energetic means that the team is always accepting challenges no matter how hard it will be.

Maybe Top 20 place is very probable for the team, but how about Top 10?


bloggerjakes

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Which country will be the World Chess Olympiad Champion?

It has been years that Russia has dominated the World Chess Olympiad. But since Russia, once Soviet Union was dissolved into several countries, mostly past Soviet Union states and now independent countries are also vying for the championship.

China and India are the Asian countries that have World Class chess players and can compete hand-in-hand with other Chess superstars-composed countries for the championship.

This blogger came to ask: "How about the Philippines?"


bloggerjakes

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

What if: World Chess Olympiad in Cebu

Having the World Chess Olympiad in Cebu would allow most of Cebu chess players to see and even interact with their favorite world class chess players. That is the advantage of hosting world class tournaments such as the World Chess Olympiad.

Last time, Chess Olympiad was held in Manila. If ever another Chess Olympiad is to be held in the Philippines, it is also good to hold it in Cebu. Cebu has its World Convention Centre that can host world class events. And World Chess Olympiad is indeed a world class event.

For the meantime, as a Cebuano, we could place it in our wishlist: "What if World Chess Olympiad is hosted in Cebu".


bloggerjakes

Monday, November 17, 2008

World Chess Olympiad

The on-going World Chess Olympiad gives our country the opportunity to showcase our world class chess talents. Although in this Olympiad, the veteran Chess Olympians are not around, we are still hoping that we can at least improve our last Olympiad standings, or maybe land in the top ten places.

For details on the on-going games, go to the official website.

Team Philippines are composed of GMs Buenaventura Villamayor, Wesley So, Jayson Gonzales, and Darwin Laylo, and International Master John Paul Gomez.

Hopefully, on the next chess olympiad, we will see more Cebuano chess players in the line-up.


bloggerjakes

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Rapid Thinking in Rapid Chess Games

Most weekend tournaments nowadays, which is usually held two days in 7 round robin format, are played in Rapid chess games. Rapid chess games are games wherein players are given at least 25 minutes to play and finish the game. Although Rapid chess games vary from 25 to 40 minutes per game.

Rapid chess games gives the convenience of not moving very fast, but still need to think fast to evaluate positions and tactical moves. Tournaments can be decided within the short one day or two days, thus giving more excitement on weekends.

One needs to have rapid thinking in Rapid Chess games.

This blogger is fond of Rapid Chess games and tournaments. In the early years, Shell tournament gives the opportunity to challenge the best of the youth chess players. Shell tournament is still very alive even today. Almost every month has qualifying tournaments for a place in the finals. And at the finals, the best youth chess players is playing its best Rapid chess games to be come the National Champion.

This blogger believes that Cebuanos have a high probability to excel in this types of Rapid Chess tournaments. Hopefully, a World Rapid Chess Champion will emerge.


bloggerjakes

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

What does it take to be a World Blitz Champion?

World Blitz Championship was recently held and the surprise winner is GM Leinier Dominguez of Cuba . Placing second is the defending 2007 World Blitz Champion GM Vassily Ivanchuk. For more details of the championship, refer to the official website.

If a Cuban can be a champion, so can a Filipino and more specifically a Cebuano. More and more Cebuanos are playing blitz chess games nowadays. With the lure of huge amount of money from betting blitz games.

This blogger remember the days of just staying in the cebu chess club waiting for eager competitors for a games series of blitz games. It was also remembered of the late National Master "Loloy" Ruelan who encourage the blitz chess games. The blitz games can vary from 1 minute each to 5 minute-games. There are even handicapped blitz games.

If only Cebuanos can compete with those world blitz championship, we will be seeing ourselves with a future World Chess Blitz Champion.

So, what does it take to be a World Blitz Champion?

You should be a balanced chess player, with mastery of opening theories, middlegame strategies, and ending theories. Also, you must have a great speed in moving pieces, and most of all fast thinking.

There are plenty of Cebuanos who can be good in blitz. It will now be a matter of exposure to the World Chess Blitz Championship cycle, where one of us could be the future champion.


bloggerjakes

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Can a Cebuano become World Chess Champion?

Recently concluded world chess championship between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and the ex-champion (now challenger) Vladimir Kramnik has been a colorful display of preparation and dedication to chess. Anand has retained his title with two won games ahead from the challenger. For details of the games, refer to the official website.

This keeps this blogger wondering if there would be any chance a Cebuano could become World Chess Champion.

So far, to date, there are still not much of candidate that we can think of. We still need to see Grandmaster calibre for Cebuanos. Cebuanos have International Masters Joseph Sanchez and Richard Bitoon as possible next Grandmasters for Philippines. But this is really far from becoming World Chess Championship cycle.

Cebu chess institutions need to develop the youth as our hope for future world champions. Unlike in other countries (Singapore to mention one) where there are really chess schools where those young enthusiasts can enrol and be taught by world class masters. Cebu chess institution must also offer these world class chess schools.

Aside from that, chess players must be exposed to world class chess tournaments, not only one or two in a year, but as much as possible, one or two every month. Being exposed to world class calibre tournaments, chess players will be comfortable to be playing in tournaments held outside of the country, and thus also be exposed to the new ideas on chess strategies.

With these suggestions, so we go back to the question: Can a Cebuano become World Chess Champion?


bloggerjakes

Monday, November 10, 2008

Welcome to Cebu Chess

Hi everyone!

Welcome to Cebu Chess. Cebu Chess blog is all about chess and chess in Cebu.

Cebu is one of the beautiful province of the historic country of Philippines. For a more detailed description of Cebu refer to http://www.cebu.gov.ph. Residents of Cebu is also referred as Cebuanos, "Bisaya" or "Bisdak". This blogger is also proud to be a Cebuano, "Bisaya" or "Bisdak".

Chess is one of the very old board games that is still very popularly played by all people in the whole world. Chess is a very challenging game of wits and strategy. More and more Cebuanos are into playing serious chess nowadays, with more tournaments being held in Cebu itself.

This blog is to all Cebuanos, and Cebuano chess afficionados. Ato ni pre!


bloggerjakes