United Chess Players of Calapan, Inc. president Emmanuel “Noel” Bandelaria Asi announced the holding of the 2019 Lifecore Enterprises Open Chess Tournament on Sunday, September 15, at the Bulwagang Panlalawigan in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro.
He formally issued an invitation to all Filipino woodpushers nationwide to join the tourney.
Bandelaria Asi, who will serve as tournament director and Press Relation Officer of the Philippine Executive Chess Association, expressed his optimism that the tournament will attract the country’s top chess players from the nearby provinces as well as the metro.
“We have invited Grand Master (GM) Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr., Grandmaster Darwin Laylo, Fide Masters David Elorta and Nelson “Elo” Mariano III and National Master Emmanuel Emperado to join the event,” Bandelaria Asi said.
“Mas mabigat ang field ngayon, pero gagawin ko ang aking best,” said the Calapan City, Oriental native and 13-time Philippine Open champion Grandmaster (GM) Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr., the country’s representative in this year’s FIDE World Seniors Chess Championships to be held on November 11 to 24 in Bucharest, Romania.
The one-day rapid format is open to all players, backed up by Nicolas Ramil Castro of Lifecore Enterprises Inc.in close cooperation with Province of Oriental Mindoro, offers a top purse of P25,000.
The second to fifth placers will receive P10,000, P5,000, P3,000 and P1,000, respectively. Sixth to tenth placers will get P500 each.
There will also be special prizes P500 each for the top senior, junior, kiddie and female players.
Meanwhile, the 12th leg of the 2019 Grandmaster Rosendo Balinas Jr. Chess Cup also known as the Lifecore Enterprises National Executive Grand Prix Chess Championships gets underway on Saturday, September 15 at the same venue.
For details contact Emmanuel “Noel” Bandelaria Asi at 0998-8446614, Atty. Cliburn Anthony Orbe at 0918-8974410, Dr. Jenny Mayor at 0935-1004755, Dr. Fred Paez 0921-2728172, Joselito Cada 0949-9981949, Martin Gaticales 0999-8851432 and NM Efren Bagamasbad 0915-7209145 for complete details.
