Cagayan de Oro to host chess tilt

CAGAYAN de Oro will host hundreds of budding chess players as the Shell National Youth Active Chess Championships (Shell Active Chess) holds its first-of-two Mindanao legs in the city this weekend.

Registration is now ongoing at selected schools, chess clubs, local government offices and at various Shellane outlets as organizers expect 500 individuals vying for the top honors in the kiddies and juniors divisions.

Post your reaction to the Manila hostage crisis

Interested parties can also download registration forms by logging on to www.shell.com.ph/shell_chess with a fee pegged at P50.

Tournament sponsor, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., said it has included Cagayan de Oro to its list of host cities to accommodate the growing number of players from the 14-and-under and 20-and-under groups in Mindanao.

The circuit has so far staged the first six legs, including two in the Visayas, with 36 players already clinching berths in the national finals slated October 23-24 at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City.

Davao City will host the final leg of eliminations on September 25-26.

The top three finishers will qualify to the grand finals sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).

Under tournament rules, each leg will be an eight-round Swiss system event for the juniors and nine-round for the kiddies while the grand finals will be a nine-round tournament for both divisions.

Shell Active Chess is the country’s longest running, grassroots-based chess tournament for the company’s bid to empower the Filipino youth through sports. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)