Torre awaits Myanmar gambit on SEAG chess

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino chessers look forward to a more productive campaign in the next SEA Games after host Myanmar signified its intention to increase the number of events in the sport in the biennial meet in 2013.

GM Eugene Torre, coach of the Phl team that won one gold, four silver and three bronze medals in the recent SEA Games in Indonesia, said Myanmar bared plans of including Myanmar chess, ASEAN chess and random chess when it gets its turn to host the event.

“I was told that Myanmar has agreed to include standard and blitz chess into the SEA Games calendar in 2013 only if Myanmar chess and ASEAN chess and random chess would be included in the list,” Torre told The STAR.

“I know it will be approved because Myanmar has been very insistent to include the three events in chess,” he added.

Torre explained the plan is to include four events in Myanmar chess, four in ASEAN chess, six in random chess and seven in classical chess like standard and blitz, bringing to 21 the total number of gold medals to be disputed.

“That’s a lot of gold medals so we better prepare early if we want to end up with a fair share of the pie,” Torre said.

Myanmar chess is almost like the classical game only with an elephant piece that moves differently with some pieces to be put randomly by the two opposing players while the ASEAN chess has fixed position except that it’s different with that of standard chess.

Random chess, a sport invented by the late American world champion Bobby Fischer in collaboration with Torre, is similar to Myanmar chess but without the elephant piece.

“It can be played if you know how to play chess. I believe we could also excel on it if we start taking these sports now, practice and play it with diligence,” said Torre.

The Filipinos are also expected to contend in the standard, blindfold and blitz chess.

Under Torre’s guidance, the Phl struck gold in blitz chess courtesy of GM Wesley So and snared four silvers behind GM John Paul Gomez (blindfold), IM Oliver Barbosa and Catherine Pereña (mixed standard), Rulp Ylem Jose (women’s standard) and So (standard) and three bronzes through GM Darwin Laylo (blindfold), Perena (standard) and GM Mark Paragua (blitz).