Grandmasters join Pacquiao tilt in GenSan

The country’s top wood pushers try their mettle at the novel 2nd Manny Pacquiao Random Chess Tournament which starts this Saturday at SM Mall in General Santos City.

Early entries in the chess variant introduced by the late American Grandmaster Bobby Fischer, include GMs Joey Antonio, Darwin Laylo, Richard Bitoon and Jayson Gonzales.

The nine-round Swiss System event, organized by the MP Chess Organization headed by Asia’s first GM Eugene Torre, is sponsored by Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao.

Also entered are IMs Emmanuel Senador, Rolando Nolte, Jan Emmanuel Garcia, Barlo Nadera, Ronald Dableo, Joel Pimentel, Kim Steven Yap and Yves Ranola.

Antonio and the other GMs are entered in both the individual and team events.

Team play is set Dec. 14 and 15 while individual competition will be played on Dec. 16.

The winning team gets P400,000.

The individual competition stakes P50,000, P30,000 and P20,000 in that order.

Random chess allows players to make their own initial set up of the pieces.