Campomanes Memorial Cup: Million dollar chessfest set

CEBU, Philippines - Filipino chess masters will have a big new international tournament to look forward to as the Philippines will host a one-million dollar tournament this August.

The said tourney is dubbed as Florencio Campomanes Memorial Cup Chess Championships on August 28 to September 5, which will be held either at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex or at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov of Russia agreed to finance this international tournament to honor the late former World Chess Federation (Fide) president Florencio Campomanes.

The nations who are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will benefit from the tournament.

The competition will be spread over 10 legs in 10 years with $100,000 at stake per leg.

Each leg will have three divisions namely open, women and challenge. The open category will have total prize money of $70,000, while the women’s class will get $20,000. The remaining $10, 000 will be allotted for the challenge games.

The men’s division champion will earn $10,000, while the women’s and challenge winners will get $5,000 and $3,000, respectively.

Campomanes served as Fide president from 1982 to 1995. He passed away last May at the age of 83.

National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president Prospero “Butch” Pichay and Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan Bin Kalifa Al Nahyan were grateful to Ilyumzhinov for honoring Campomanes through a tournament.   (FREEMAN NEWS)