GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr.

Chess journalist Bobby Ang pulled the trigger and made a direct hit after coming up with a razor-sharp column about GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. (Chess Piece: April 13, 2009).

Here's an excerpt of that column:

"So what now, Joey Antonio? What is happening to you?

In the 2007 Asian Intercontinental Championship you needed a win in the last round against Indonesia’s GM Susanto Megaranto to qualify for the World Cup but instead agreed to a short 18-move draw.

You declined to participate in the Philippine Championship in 2008 which also served as the qualifier for the Dresden Olympiad team in favor of playing in an exhibition match with Eugene Torre.

You announced that you were going to campaign in tournaments abroad to bring your rating up to 2600, but instead of Europe where the strong tournaments are you instead fly to United States and played in a steady diet of weekend tournaments, the majority of which were unrated and weak — in most cases you were the only international grandmaster playing!

What is happening to you GM Joey? Why don’t you go back to hitting the books as you used to do, and playing hard like you once did? Stop being mad at the whole world and then you will find that you have still got what it takes to reach 2600."

Of course, the column was not meant - I suppose - to demean GM Antonio.

It's more of a concerned wake-up call to bring back the luster of one of the country's stars in chess.

May that call also awaken other talented Filipino chess players who ceased to aspire for the best.