CCSC wants Cepca to continue chess program

CEBU City Sports Commission (CCSC) chairman Edward Hayco wants the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) to continue the chess program that attracted more than 43,000 players during last year’s record-breaking attempt for the biggest chess tournament.

Hayco had a lengthy talk with Cepca president Jojo Muralla to discuss plans of giving Cepca the free hand to handle the city’s school-wide chess program.

“You have 40,000 raw talents waiting to be developed and CCSC has around 10,000 chess equipment distributed in 12 school districts – that is around 800 per district. It’s a very wide selection for a brand new talent,” Hayco told Muralla.

Muralla, Cepca founding president and Sun.Star Cebu chess columnist Frank “Boy” Pestaño and Cebu Chess Association president Boojie Lim were the three witnesses CCSC contacted to sign the documents it sent to the Guinness World Record Headquarters in London.

Hayco also encouraged Muralla to ask his group to re-channel its tournament funding to fund a small tournament that will be conducted per school district, which could help discover new talents.

“Successful players are usually not interested in the sports they are taking right now. Just like dancesports, almost all the successful dance athletes we have who came from our barangays workshops had other agenda in joining our workshop before they get to like dancesports,” Hayco said.

Muralla is expected to bring the matters to the members of Cepca on its monthly meeting set this month.

“It’s a very good proposition and I believe our members will be supportive to this project. Though I am very much willing to support this program, I need to consult our members because it’s not mine to decide alone. But I will try to convince our members especially the officers because this is what we are all try to do develop the chess in Cebu,” said Muralla.