GM John Paul Gomez
Vol. XXII, No. 96
Monday, December 8, 2008 MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Bobby Ang
By virtue of his sterling performance during the 2008 Dresden Chess Olympiad, IM John Paul Gomez earned for himself a 20-game International Grandmaster norm. This, together with the previous norm earned in the Philippine Grand Finals held last July 2008, was enough to get him the full International Grandmaster title. Congratulations John Paul!
He becomes the 10th in the honored roll of GMs in the country.
1. Eugene O. Torre (1974)
2. Rosendo C. Balinas, Jr.+ (1976)
3. Rogelio Antonio, Jr. (1993)
4. Buenaventura Villamayor (2000)
5. Nelson Mariano II (2004)
6. Mark Paragua (2005)
7. Darwin Laylo (2007)
8. Wesley So (2007)
9. Jayson Gonzales (2008)
10. John Paul Gomez (2008)
This can also be considered a feather in the cap of former Prospero “Butch” Pichay, who has produced four GMs since he took over the presidency of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) in 2006.
Here is the full article.
Go Pichay!
Go Campo!
Yeah, Go Campo, To Hell. You pathetic hampas lupa.
You owe the Filipino people the 12 million pesos, remember?
You owe a lot to all the Filipino players who suffered and who lost their dreams, during your 50 years of looting of Philippine chess.
I wonder if Pichay ever made good on his promise to give each of our Olympians and Mind Games delegates $1000 allowance each. I know the Mind Games players did not…I doubt that the Olympians got their $1000 either.
In my opinion, Campo and Pichay are basically the same. Both did their share for Philippine chess but they’re not perfect. Campo definitely played favorites and hampered the development of many excellent young players while Pichay still has not gotten the support from the private sector we badly need to continue developing chess. What happens when Pichay decides to leave chess and do something else to further his political career (which is why he took up the chess position in the first place)
And I wouldn’t worry about the P12 million. I’m sure it’s safe and sound in *somebody*’s bank account. But that’s par for the course here in the Philippines.