Team Cebu to defend title in national inter-cities

TEAM Cebu City Chess will be defending its title in the 2009 National Inter-Cities and Municipalities Chess Team Championship on April 11 to 15 at the Robinson’s Mall in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac City.

The team, composed of GM-candidate Richard Bitoon, International Master Kim Steven Yap, Merben Roque, Richard Natividad and Voltaire Sevillano, will again represent the city in this annual tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).

Cebu City Councilor Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem, the chairman of the Cebu City Council committee on games, amusement and sports, told Sun.Star Cebu they initially planned to send two teams.

“Since we are the champions, we wanted to send two teams to the event. But since it will make the other team weaker, we just shelved the idea and decided on sending one strong team, composed of players who won the title last year,” said Jakosalem.

However, only one titled player will be allowed to play, forcing either Bitoon or Yap to sit out as the reserve.

Bitoon, who competed against a strong field in the 2009 Aeroflot Open, is expected to man Board 1 as Cebu renews its rivalry with Tagaytay again.

Cebu and Tagaytay had gone head-to-head in various competitions.

The same Cebu team finished runner-up to Tagaytay in the 2008 Handuraw Chess Festival in Dapitan City last December.

Tagaytay was Cebu’s runner-up in last year’s National Inter-Cities and Municipalities Chess Team Championship in Bacolod.

The tournament offers a total cash prize of P300,000 for the top 10 teams.

The champion will go home with P100,000 while the second and third placers will get P60,000 and P40,000, respectively.

The individual board medalists will earn P3,000 each. (RCM)

Source: SunStar