Saturday, February 28, 2009 US-based patron to see action in Antonio Aguirre chessfest
NEW York City-based chess patron Antonio Ivan S. Aguirre arrived recently not just to oversee the staging of the 1st Antonio Ivan S. Aguirre Individual open chess tournament but to compete in the event slated April 19-25 at the Top's Millennium Plaza Bowling Lanes, Capitol Shopping Center, Bacolod City.
Aguirre, a native of Bacolod City who traces his chess roots here, told tournament director and chief arbiter Dodz Felisilda that he decided to compete in the tournament "in order to test the skills of local chessers and to find out the level of competitiveness of Bacolod chess talents."
The tournament is Aguirre's way of giving back to the Bacolod chess community, which he considers as responsible for introducing him to the game of chess.
"I hope that through this tournament, more promising young players will be given the much-needed exposure to competition which will hopefully develop them into better chess players," Aguirre earlier told Felisilda.
The tournament is a seven-round, Swiss system competition (1 hour 20 moves + 1 hour to finish the game) and is open to all male and female chess players in Negros who must know how to record chess games either in Descriptive Notation (P-K4 - PQB4) or Algebraic Notation (e4 - d5) and must provide their own tournament size chess set and chess clock.
Registration fee is P200. Deadline for registration is on April 16 with no extension, said the registration committee head.
Prizes awaiting the winners are: for the champion, a P5,000 gift certificate plus 42-inch, four-legged “king” trophy; for the 1st runner-up, a P4,000 gift certificate plus 36-inch, four-legged “queen” trophy; for the 2nd runner-up, a 3,000 gift certificate plus 30-inch, four-legged “rook” trophy; for the 3rd runner-up, a P2,000 gift certificate plus 27-inch, four-legged “bishop” trophy; and for the 4th runner-up, a P1,000 gift certificate plus 24-inch, four-legged “knight” trophy.
Meanwhile, the 6th to 20th place finishers in the event will each get Eureka chess sets as prizes.
Only duly registered participants will be included in the opening day Round 1 schedule of matches, which kicks off immediately following the opening ceremonies on April 19.
For more information, contact Felisilda through telephone number 707-0421 or mobile 0917-6078373. (HCV)
(February 28, 2009 issue) Write letter to the editor. Click here.
