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Marge: Homer, is this how you pictured married life? (pretend it's chess bloggers life)
Homer: Yeah, pretty much, except we drove around in a van solving mysteries.


Last night at around 7:30 pm while having my dinner (left over meal from lunch) of ginisang ampalaya and fried tilapia, I've received quite a number of text messages and email alerts from our friends that I should visit Wesley's page at chessgames.com "immediately" because Wesley So just made a "last minute decisions" and the kid is set to leave for Vietnam tomorrow, that is today, to compete in the zonal. The messages were all clear but not demanding: to verify the news, once and for all. Taking my time, I finished my dinner, making sure that my intestine will digest them quite smoothly, washes the dishes, careful not to break any of them. This whole process took me about half an hour after I received the "alert" then I log on to my best friend Acer, sent Mrs Lenny So and Mr Tee a confirmation email and finally, I arrived at Barangay Wesley So at chessgames. And here's what greeted me. Yup the people there are already out in the streets. There was some kind of festivities going on there. Some are singing, praying, preaching, yelling, anything goes, in unabashed display of one's extreme enthusiasm and fanaticism. Before I knew what was happening, there was another email alert. Bulgarian GM Dejan Bojkov and yours truly are now friends at Facebook! Check out ChessHeroes interview with Bojkov from our previous post HERE.

But anyway, everyone is happy and that's the important thing.

This is what online community is all about. Friendship. Spiced up with suspense, love, fear, mild and short lived altercation etc. The noise, the confusion and everything, heck, this what makes the stress of chess blogging a bit more easier to bear. And I'm loving every moment of it!

Filipino Chess Bloggers

Yours truly, D.T. Catolos will momentarily leave the stage for this one.
To all readers of this blog. Please take a moment to what fellow chess blogger, Rustic of Malibay chess blog has to say...

The three volunteers...at your service

Pinoy chess bloggers
By Rusticbull, Malibay Chess Blog

Meet three of the very few Philippine chess bloggers: rusticbull (malibaychessclub); catolos (chessheroes); and pulsar (chessph).

[How we wished Kiko of philippinechesschronicles were with us.]

Any idea on what we talked about when we met each other face-to-face?

Of course, chess – but more specifically on the blogging life of a chess blogger.

We asked ourselves: why do we blog about Philippine chess? Believe me, we could not readily give the answers to our own questions.

Why do we have to take pains in giving our efforts, time – and even financial resources – in writing about Philippine chess with nothing in return?

Our faces were blank.

But we were in unison in saying that we should be of service to you – our dear avid readers – who keep on coming back to our blogs for news and updates about our chess heroes.

We treat it as a self-imposed mission to keep you informed of the events, happenings, direction, goals, aspirations and dreams of the people and institutions that encompass Philippine chess.

So keep on journeying with us as we all explore the beauty of this sport that has become a significant part of our lives.

Philippine media coverage of US Championship

Why ABS-CBNNEWS.com, who happens to be one of the premier Philippine online newspaper on the web had to acquired chess information through a billiard website and as a result, the US Championship update they published last night is actually three days and three rounds late? This blog had already post updates about the US Championship and IM Sevillano's round for round progress. Perhaps they can go directly to the US Championship official website to gather information or much better, subscribe to some of the leading online chess newspaper such as chesstoday.net? Of course this blogger cannot afford for any paid subscription but what amazed me most is that chess blogs in the Philippines though may not be well written and crisp as commercial online and print newspapers, remains the most valuable information of free updates (and entertainment too) when it comes to Philippine and world chess scene. That's the truth folks.

Now, to US championship. IM Sevillano won his five round assignment in the battle of the past US champions. Sevillano defeated two time winner, GM Alexander Shabalov (2620) to raise his score to 2.5 points, good for 15th place.