DON’T look now but the Philippines, the same country which produced Asia´s first GM in Eugene Torre during the 1974 Olympiad in Nice, France and the world’s youngest grandmaster in Wesley So in Manila last year, has a new chess grandmaster.
His name? John Paul Gomez.
Gomez., a 22-year-old mechanical engineering student from De la Salle University, earned the elusive GM title after drawing with GM Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic during the ninth round of the 38 th World Chess Olympiad at the International Congress Center.
He became the 10th grandmaster of the home country of FIDE honorary lifetime president Florencio Campomanes, joining the elite club of Torre (1974), the late Rosendo Balinas (1976), Rogelio Antonio Jr. (1993), Buenaventura “Bong” Villamayor (2000), Nelson Mariano II (2004), Mark Paragua (2005), Darwin Laylo (2007), Wesley So (2997) and Jayson Gonyales (2008).
Gomez is also the fourth player to earn his GM title under the watch of National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCF) president Prospero “Butch” Pichay, who took over as head in 2006.
“John Paul will not be the last player to become a GM under my watch. There will be many more players to come and they will all be players to watch ,” vowed Pichay.
Like Campomanes before him, Pichay is making chess a very popular sport in the country again.
And to back up his claim, Pichay is hosting no less than five major international chess tournaments in the Philippines next year, beginning with the Asian Men’s and Women’ s Chess Championship, which has a combined prize fund of US$65,000.
With such handsome guarantee, Pichay is ready to roll out the red carpet for more Filipino world-class players.
To foreign players wishing to challenge their Filipino counterparts in Manila, it’s your move.
That is the problem in the Philippines. Politicians want to gain publicity so they go for big events. I do not see any problem with big events but where is the program for the scholastic or youth chess? If this country can produce the same money to develop chess and hosts events for the youths,then hosting big events like this can be justified.
Result? A disaster finish by the RP team in the chess olympiad.
Philippine chess officials should stop promoting chess by advertisements. They should promote chess from the grassroots.
Where do you think the young talents, the new Philippine GMs come from?
They come from exposure to big local events where their talents are developed from international exposure.
The disaster finish is not at all the end of Philippine chess. That is how the young GMs learn and gain experience and become stronger, which the Philippines will, in the next few years.
More important, is the opportunity of ALL aspiring chess talent to be able to play and get their IM and GM norms, in Pichay’s leadership.
That was not the case during Campo’s reign, where he would just pick and promote a few of his privileged players. Torre was his only so called only “manok” who did well. But Torre was a self made talent. Like Balinas, who gained the GM title despite Campo’s ill treatment.
We had other Filipino talents who left during Campo’s reign. IM Barcenilla who supposedly got his GM norm in New York, but did not get the favors of Toti Abundo and Campo. And IM Enrico Sevillano, who graced the November 2008 Chess Life cover as the current U.S. Open Champion.
Campo single handedly repressed Philippine chess development in his over 50 years of so his called “chess leadership.” What a sham.
China, India, Vietnam is far ahead of the Philippines.
But Campo did well for himself, did’nt he? The honorary swindler.
Campomanaes is goddess. Because of he FIDE is popular and chess is world sport. He likes president Ilumzinow.
Campo sux big time. Pinoy journalism also.
subious
I am not praising Campomanes either, I am just saying that grassroots development in the Philippines still has to be realized.
Fifty years of Campo and another 2 decades of post Campomanes era, Philippines Youth Chess has still no regular tournament calendar except for the age group qualifying tournament to determine the delegates to the world youth championships. Kids from the different regions of the country has no provincial/regional/national events on a regular basis where they can develop their chess skills.
I guess hosting big events are good but there is not much plan outhere for youth development.
Also Ed, as much as you are promoting philippine chess in your article, you sounds (at least to me) like you are also promoting your congressman Pichay.
This kind of things I say that really is a sad part of Philippine journalism.
Pichay obviously has surpassed Campo’s achievement in a remarkably short time.
But IMHO he should have let Torre and or Antonio play as RPs first board, or any board at all. Their absence hurt the RP team big time.
As for Campo, and also Abundo, they have done irreparable harm to Philippine chess for a long time by their self serving, and repressive influence to Filipino chess players not akin to kissing up to them.
They should stay the hell out of Philippine chess for good.
And that is no wonder why Philippine chess is lagging so much behind in Asian chess.
pichay should take away his picture at the website of philppine chess.
he is a typical traditional filipino politician.
filipino politics is the dirtiest in the world.