FIDE confirms Mariano’s GM title

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) yesterday confirmed the grandmaster title of Nelson Mariano II, one month after the former Asian Junior champion obtained the third and last GM norm in the first ASEAN Chess Confederation GM Circuit in Bangkok.

"Your Grandmaster title has been confirmed by FIDE, congratulations," said FIDE executive director Casto Abundo in a text message to Mariano.

Abundo added that the confirmation, along with that of international arbiter Bobby Bautista, was made in the FIDE Presidential Board meeting last July 12-13 during the World Championship in Tripoli, Libya.

However, it has not been published on the FIDE.com website pending the settlement of arrears by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines of its FIDE dues. Other players with pending publication are those from Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Guatemala, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Netherlands Antilles, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Still, Abundo’s message was enough to make Mariano’s day.

"I’d like to thank God, my family and all the people who have supported me through the years, those who have not lost hope in me," said Mariano, an Army mainstay from the Special Service Unit.

Among them are AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Narciso Abaya, CG-PA Lt. Gen. Efren Abu, UE chairman PO Domingo and UE president Baltazar Endriga, the Philippine Sports Commission and long-time patron Atty. Andy Gatmaitan.

Mariano, the country’s fifth GM after Eugene Torre, Rosendo Balinas, Joey Antonio and Bong Villamayor, clinched his first norm in 1994 when he won the Asian Juniors crown in Malaysia then obtained the second the following year in a Closed tournament in Singapore.

"We’re all happy that Fide has finally confirmed Nelson’s GM title. It was long overdue," said Antonio.

It was indeed a long, hard climb for the 29-year-old Mariano, a protégé of the late chess president Art Borjal who started out as a promising chess whiz in the early 80s, winning kiddies tournaments, stamping his class in the age-group competitions before topping the national juniors in 1994.

Mariano, who came from a chess-playing family, then bested a tough field, to cop the Asian Juniors crown and the IM title with a GM norm to boot in Malaysia that same year, a feat that gained him a berth in the World Juniors in Brazil where he contended for the title until he wavered in the last three rounds and settled for joint third.

But for one reason or another, he failed to sustain that momentum, struggled the next few years in tournaments here and abroad.

Having been a noted ward of the old chess organization, Mariano was also caught in the crossfire of a raging power grab between two groups until parenthood forced him to momentarily bow out of the chess scene in the late 90s.

But it was not until last year when Mariano felt and realized that he had an unfinished business to do as far as his chess career is concerned. — Dante Navarro