Private support

IN PHOTO: Sugardom (in orange) and Nanobrain (in red)

There's a new trend emerging in the Philippine chess scene. Chess tournament organizers are no longer those who are professionally involved with the sport. Did you know the man named "Nanobrain"? How about "Sugardom"?

The former is a lawyer - and a numero uno lawyer at that. The latter is a sailor - a ship captain who makes the seas his wives.

Whatever happened to their sanity that they entered a new role as chess tourney organizers?? Haha. Just kidding.

Tomorrow (September 4), select members of Barangay Wesley (a group of chess addicts whose admiration for GM Wesley So touches the sky) will visit Don Galo Chess Club for a friendly club match.

Nanobrain's preparation for this much-awaited and much-talked-about club match, I guess, is more tasking than his preparation for a hearing before the court, haha.

And for a September 5 spectacle, Sugardom is busy organizing a real big chess event in the country - GM Wesley So vs GM John Paul Gomez Match - right at the heart of Robinson's Manila. What an effort for a ship captain like Sugardom! Not only that. A Barangay Wesley Try-Out event will also take place, alongside the GM So-GM Gomez match.

The efforts, commitment, and passion by these two souls behind the aliases should shame concerned chess officials and stakeholders of the Philippine chess community whose actions and intentions do not serve well the Filipinos.

The unselfish volunteerism in the staging of the BW-Don Galo event, the GM So-GM Gomez match, and the BW try-out are in full contrast with the latest brouhaha about one player's exclusion from the RP Team bound for the fast approaching Chess Olympiad.

Nanobrain and Sugardom only show us what private citizens can do to help in advancing Philippine chess. Everybody can contribute, see? In particular, those private people in the upper stratum can very well take the lead and make a difference.