Meralco Chess Club Hosts October Chess Festival
By Marlon Bernardino
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 09 Oct 2012
The Meralco Chess Club hosted the October Chess Festival, a simul that established a club record 53 players, 36 of whom are from various public schools whose participation were shouldered by Meralco employees. The event aims to raise fund for Meralco Junior Player and FIDE Master Paulo Bersamina to support his campaign for a grandmaster norm in the Indonesian Open this month. The previous club record was 50 boards by GM Eugene Torre and GM Jayson Gonzales in another fund-raising for Tahanan Walang Hagdanan in 2010.
The main event was with FIDE Master Paulo Bersamina playing on 27 boards that resulted in 15 wins, 6 draws, and 6 losses to Mark Villarante and Michael Alcantara of Ramon Magsaysay High School, Justin Corpin of UP, Rene Ople, Joebert Valenzuela and Rojym Nebato.
National Master Gerardo "Giri" Cabellon, Head Coach of the MVP Olympics bronze medalist Meralco Team, handled 13 boards as a show of support to the boy who was once a participant in a simul of his own and registered 11 wins and 2 draws with no loss.
Meralco Jr. Champion and ASEAN Primary School Olympiad bronze medalist Rhal Sol Cruz of La Salle Green Hills took on 13 boards and finished with 9 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses to Diana Cadiente and Joebert Puno of Ramon Magsaysay and Miguel Colasito of Angono National High School.
Portion of the proceeds will go to One Meralco Foundation, the CSR arm of Meralco, that has been holding the Meralco Campus Tour, a chess workshop for public schools. Previous beneficiaries are the Ramon Magsaysay High School and Bagong Silangan Elementary School.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Marlon Bernardino.
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