So, Gomez co winners of the 2010 NCFP training tournament for the Asian Games

sIt's two bird in one stone for Wesley So. He tied first with GM John Paul Gomez and got some needed sparring partners as preparation before he fly off to Texas USA for the 2010 SPICE Cup tournament. Incidentally, the tournament also acts as a preparation for the rest of the team for the coming Asian Games in Guangzhou, China starting November 12.

The Philippines is still haunted by the 50th place finish in the recently held Chess Olympiad in Khanty Manysks, Russia and winning a medal in the Asian Games will surely bring back the passion and inspiration the country badly needs for the sport.

It is good to see IM Oliver Barbosa in the line up. You don't hear about him very often but his immunity to pressure is his major weapon and that is the reason why he is very successful of bringing down many top rated GMs in any given time and situation. They can use Barbosa a lot.

So, at 17 the country’s highest-rated player with an ELO of 2674, and Gomez finished with identical scores of 17 points on four wins, five draws and one loss in the 10-round robin tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) as part of the players’ preparations for the coming Asian Games in Guangzhou, China...


“This is good training ground for our players, especially for Wesley, in time for next month’s Asian Games in Guangzhou,” said NCFP president/chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay.

Pichay said the week-long tournament was divided into two parts -- standard (long game) and rapid (25 minutes plus five seconds increment) -- to give the players enough exposure to the format to be used in the Asian Games.

Pichay also adopted the format being used in the SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence) tournament in Lubbock, Texas which discourages quick and uneventful draws by giving three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero for a loss.

Read the full article at Journal.com.ph