Former Shell chess youth champ pays it forward

MANILA, Philippines - For someone who simply wished to play ball and dreamt of experiencing snow as a child, Oliver Dimakiling has come a long, eventful way. At 31, he has already been to many Asian and European countries as a Filipino Chess International Master (IM) and is on track to obtain the Grand Master title.

Dimakiling’s love for sports was nurtured quite early in Bohol, where his grandfather encouraged him to play basketball as early as two years old. But it was in chess that he would eventually show great promise, thanks to his dad. Mother and son moved to Davao where his father worked, and thus began the elder Dimakiling’s rigorous, albeit informal, chess instruction, which Oliver recalls, included holing him up in his bedroom to master the book My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer. In time, the primary school-age Oliver was already beating his dad’s officemates who were more advanced in years.

But the young chess player needed a true venue to formally substantiate his skills. “Sabi ko ano ba ito, practice ako nang practice, wala naman akong nilalaruang tournament.” That is, until Shell Active Chess conducted its Davao leg when he was 12 years old. “It feels good when you’re training and looking forward to a competition. Without tournaments, it will feel like you’re training for nothing … you’ll be frustrated and lose steam eventually. That is why Shell Chess proved very valuable to us, chess players, especially as we were growing up.”

Now in its 19th year, the Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship or Shell Active Chess is an annual youth search for future chess champions and is the nation’s longest-running, grassroots-based chess tournament. Dimakiling joined in 1992 and became national champion in 1999. This propelled him to achieve higher and farther, beyond the country’s borders, as International Master.

His first international tournament was in 2004 when he played in Tagaytay City. Since then, he has gone to countries like Korea, India, Malaysia, and Singapore in Asia, and in Europe to Spain, Italy, Germany, and Armenia. Today, he is based in Manila and is two norms away from the Grand Master rank.

 “Yung iba positional ang approach, gusto ko tactical. Gusto ko labanan from the onset kasi war game ‘yan. That’s how I view chess. It’s a reflection of who you are. In life, I am also a risk-taker.”

As an undergraduate student, chess almost lost Oliver to corporate banking. At De La Salle University, he was contemplating shifting from sports management to finance, but on the weekend before the interview with college officials, he won in the Millennium Prix against Asia’s first Grand Master Eugene Torre, no less.

The reputation of chess as mental combat is well-deserved. According to Dimakiling, one Grand Master game is equivalent to two World Cup football games in terms of engaging the brain and affecting the body. He says that chess hones one’s memory, analytical and concentration skills: “I think I developed a good grasp of Math because of chess. You calculate, think a number of moves ahead, and every move has variations that branch out..”

Teaching soon become a natural extension of Dimakiling’s passion for the sport. In 2007, he left the country to be a chess instructor in Singapore. While there, he explored various strategies to stoke the students’ interest in the game. That included giving piggyback rides to toddler chess pupils; greeting an all-boys class, “What’s up brothers?” to break the ice; recommending the online portal Chess Cube to students; and taking time out to play other sports with them.

IM Oliver participates as instructor in the advocacy program of Shell, in cooperation with the Department of Education: An Interaction with the Masters (AIM).

In 2010, the International Master decided to come back to the Philippines to manifest a yearning to share his skills with kababayans, especially since the sport and its athletes get little government support and corporate sponsorships.

He has been participating as instructor for two years now in the advocacy program of Shell, in cooperation with the Department of Education: An Interaction with the Masters (AIM). Now in its third year, AIM lets youths experience the sport with outstanding products of the Shell Active Chess program like Dimakiling who can help lay the proper foundation for the students’ interest. “Gusto ko sana nationwide para matulungan pati far-flung barangays. Chess for all, not just for the metro.”

For someone who has been an achiever since his youth, his most memorable tournament is surprisingly not a glittery instance of championship pride but a defining, humbling moment of humanity. During a match in India, just a month shy before ending his teaching stint in Singapore, Dimakiling witnessed destitute, barefoot families rooting for chess-playing family members. He also saw a child, born without arms and legs and cradled by his mother, whispering his every move to her, who then pushes the chess pieces around. Right there and then, he realized that “chess is a fellowship.”

The paradox is that being highly spiritual is what grounds IM Oliver Dimakiling, who believes that chess is a game that builds character. “Athletes will sometimes face failure, and some are not able to bear it so they give up. But you have to trust that the Lord is there, merong purpose para sa ’yo, you just have to keep on fighting.”