Asian Indoor qualifiers

After the smoke of war cleared, eight players – four men and four women – emerged standing to represent the country in the Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam this coming September 30 to October 8.

WOMEN
WFM Catherine Pereña
WFM Shercila Cua
WIM Cristine Mariano
WIM Beverly Mendoza

MEN
GM Mark Paragua
GM Rogeilo Antonio, Jr.
IM Rolando Nolte
GM Jayson Gonzales

Our men and women contingents only have two weeks to prepare for everything from training to plane tickets, etc.

I don’t know if they will have a group training or something of this sort. It is just my humble opinion that our women team need special training to equip them better for international competitions.

Starting today, our concerned chess officials should already start to attend to the needs of these eight players. Let us not burden our players with administrative paper works. Let them focus on nothing but chess.

And as much as possible, let us provide heartening incentives to our chess heroes and heroines.

Who will be the team captain or coach? Who will man Board 1, Board 2 and so on? These things must be well taken care of.

Attitude of players has been a concern among our players. Sometimes, the games are lost not on the board but off the board.

Let’s pray for the success of our teams. Related story HERE from the Philippines News Agency.

Final standings:

Men:
12.5 points -- M. Paragua
11 -- R. Antonio
10.5 -– R. Nolte
10-– J. Gonzales, D. Laylo
9.5 – R. Dableo, J. Gomez
8 – B. Vilamayor
7.5 -- J. de Ramos, A. Branzuela, H. Pascua
6.5 -– B. Nadera
6 -– E. Senador
5.5 -– C. Castellano
5-– M. Turqueza, R. Legaspi
4.5 -– B. Valencia

Women
9.5 points -– C. Perena
9- – Shercila Cua, C. Mariano
7.5- – B. Mendoza
6.5– Sherily Cua, L. Medina
6-– J., Docena, D. Rivera, B. Galas
4.5-– S. Peque
4 -– J. Berago
2.5-– G. Malbog
1-– R. Tunguia