Asian zonal chess starts in Tagaytay

TAGAYTAY—Veteran Grandmasters Rogelio Antonio Jr. and Eugene Torre stand at the forefront of the country’s campaign in the 2011 Asian Zone 3.3 chess championships which fires off today at the Tagaytay International Convention Center.
Joining Antonio and Torre in the quest for two World Cup berths at stake are GMs John Paul Gomez and Darwin Laylo, who were part of the Philippine team which bagged the silver medal behind world power China in the Guangzhou Asian Games last year.
The country’s top player, GM Wesley So, is already assured of a slot to the biennial World Cup and is not seeing action to give his compatriots better chances of qualifying in the nine-round competition organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and hosted by the Tagaytay City government through Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.
Leading the foreign contingent  are GMs  Nguyen Ngoc Truong  Son, Dao Thien Hai,  Nguyen Anh Dung,  Nguyen Duc Hoa and   Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam;  Zhang Zhong of Singapore, and Susanto Megaranto,  Cerdas Barus, Dede Liu and Chandra Purnama of Indonesia.
NCFP president Prospero “Butch” Pichay and Tolentino, also the NCFP secretary  general, are expected to grace the opening ceremony scheduled at 3 p.m.