Quizon chess whiz

TAGUM CITY—Daniel Quizon walked into a room packed with seasoned wood pushers and defeated every single player from the Tagum City Chess Club.

The small and fragile 12-year-old from Dasmariñas City, Cavite showed up the following day, hoping for another challenging encounter but nobody wanted to sit down with him on the same chess board anymore.

So it utterly came as no surprise when Quizon ruled the boys’ 12-under blitz and standard chess in the Philippine National Youth Games-Batang Pinoy Championships here.

“I have no other dream but to become a super Grandmaster someday,” said the sixth grader from San Miguel Elementary School in Dasmariñas City.

Quizon swept all seven games in the blitz and emerged triumphant in the standard via tie break with four other players, all of them scoring 5.5 points at the end of the seven-round Swiss system.

“I practice every day and play with stronger players to reach my dream,” said Quizon, a self-confessed fan of Filipino GM Eugene Torre and world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

Kylen Joy Mordido, also from Dasmariñas City, shared the stage with Quizon after the 14-year-old topped the girls’ 13-17 blitz and standard chess.

The ninth grader from Dasmariñas National High School captured the gold in the standard by tie break after compiling 6.5 points with Cebu City’s Glybel Jane Quinanola. She earlier won the blitz in the same unbeaten manner as Quizon.

Both Mordido and Quizon could make it three in a row in the rapid event before the Games, featuring the country’s top athletes 17 years old and below, held at the Davao Del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex ends today.

Sydney Sy Tancontian of Davao City also grabbed two gold medals, one each in a different sport.

After taking down her opponent twice to rule the girls’ +70kg judo finale the other day, the 16-year-old from University of Santo Tomas won another gold in the girls’ 62kg freestyle wrestling.

Grapplers Marielle Jeanna Liwanag (girls 58kg), Angela Alferez (62kg) and Veronica Ompod (40kg) triggered a deluge of gold medals for Leyte province in wrestling.