Pichay-Davis Chess Festival

With the indefinite cancellation of the Battle of Grandmasters, the Pichay and Davis Cup chess festival should be an complimentary substitute before the Lenten season starts next week. Wesley So is also competing. It's been a while since Wesley won a tournament here in the country so it would be quite interesting how Wesley will fare this time. The venue will be the Blue Wave Mall and you couldn't get a more excellent venue for attracting chess enthusiast than in a Mall.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

COUNTRY’S top Filipino woodpushers get another chance to show their wares when the Pichay and Davis Cup chess festival gets underway today, Sunday, March 28 at the Blue Wave Mall along Macapagal Avenue near Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

Super Grandmaster Wesley So and 12-time national open champion GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr. heads the list of cast in the one-day event organized and hosted by Davis de Leon and National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr., offers a total pot prize of P100,000 in the four categories event. Tournament director is Alex Dinoy.

Joining So and Antonio in the all Master Invitational Group A division knockout system format are fellow GMs Darwin Laylo, Jayson Gonzales, Mark Paragua and Buenaventura “Bong” Villamayor, the 2010 PSC Expo Rapid chess ruler.

Not to be outdone are GM-elect Ronald Dableo, International Masters (IMs) Barlo Nadera, Roland Nolte and Emmanuel Senador, who is fresh from winning the 2010 Candon City Open chess championships at the Stern Mall in Candon City, Ilocos Sur.

The Group B will be an Open category, Group C will be an under-20 tournament while Group D will be for players 12- years old and below using a seven round Swiss-system format.