National Chess Academy

And so, we now have the National Chess Academy (NCA). A very good development indeed for Philippine chess.

Highlights of this development:

- It has the backing of a Philippine President

- Signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Department of Education (DepEd) and the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) on the training of chess experts/coordinators who will serve as mentors to teachers and students (April 30, 2009)

- Torre was tapped to oversee the establishment of the NCA

- For this year, the DepEd has scheduled chess trainings from May 7 to 16 in Regions I to VIII, including the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and the National Capital Region (NCR)

- The DepEd will next conduct chess trainings in Regions IX, XII, the CARAGA and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)