Pestaño: The oldest chess club in the world

Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

THE Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association has been in existence for 19 long years and it seems like a lifetime.

Aside from Chessmoso, the founders were Art Ynclino, the late Sonny Sollano and Gerry Tomakin, Loy Minoza, Danny Pestaño,Nicnic Climaco and Alex Tolentino.

The Manhattan Chess club was founded in 1877 at Gafe Logeling (The club transferred to other sites including Carnegie Hall and the Central Opera house) in New York and is the second oldest chess club in America. It is historic in the sense that it frequently hosted the United States Championship .

Women were not allowed to join the club until 1938. In 1955 Bobby Fischer joined the club.

The oldest chess club in America in existence is the Mechanics Chess Institute in San Francisco established in 1854.

The Institute has also been visited by many world champions including Emanuel Lasker, José Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe, Bobby Fischer, Vasily Smyslov, Tigran Petrosian and Anatoly Karpov.

All of these pales in comparison to the oldest club in the world and which is still going strong—the Schachgesellschaft Zürich. It was founded in 1809.

Although London and Paris had their first chess clubs from the 1770s onwards including the famous Café dela Regence in Paris—where Napoleon, Rousseau Robiespierre played—organized chess was still very rare in 1809 when the Schachgesellschaft Zürich was founded.

Ever since the club’s first day, membership has been highly diverse. The founders were Sigmund Spöndli (the State cashier of Zurich), Leonhard Ziegler (a paper manufacturer), Johann Escher (a grocer) and the three painters Heinrich Maurer, Carl Schulthess and Heinrich Schulthess.

This month, the club will be celebrating its 200th jubilee with a big bang. Last Aug. 22, 200 amateurs played against eight world champions: Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Viktor Korchnoi, Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Spassky, Ruslan Ponomariov and Veselin Topalov. Each of them faced 25 players for 200 games altogether, one for every year of the club’s history.

The next day, another group of eight champions —Viswanathan Anand, Werner Hug, Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Khalifman, Vladimir Kramnik, Judit Polgar, Ruslan Ponomariov and Veselin Topalov—played one another in rapid format.

The winner was Kramnik. He was followed by Anand and, in joint third and fourth, Topalov and Ponomariov.

There was also an open tournament from Aug. 9 to 15. It attracted 600 players, including 45 GMs and 48 IMs. Alexander Areshchenko took the title with a superior tie-break over Boris Avruth with 7.5 points.

SELMA CUP. The Mayor Selma Cup, organized by Engr. Blas Hipulan, was played last weekend at the Minglanilla Sports Complex with three divisions.

The top three winners in the open division were Joel Pacuribot, Venancio Loyola Jr. and William Retanal Jr., respectively.

In the Kiddies, the champion was Marq Balbona. He was followed by Renzi Kyle Sevillano, Felix Shaun Balbona, Harold Dave Pones,Jeremy Pepito,James Andrew Balbona and Markeno Czar Manzanares.

The Executives division was ruled by Cepca members, led by former president Manny Manzanares (champion).

He was followed by Rafael Perez, Maggie Dionson and another former prexy Mandy Baria.

There will be a kiddies tournament tomorrow and Sunday at the San Roque Barangay Hall, Talisay City starting at 9:30 a.m.

The format is seven rounds Swiss with 25 minutes time control and registration at P25. Register by text to 0915-7206457.

Tournament arbiters are Marvin Ruelan and Tony Cabibil.