Titles including Grandmaster and norms will be on the line when the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and Misamis Occidental stage the ASEAN+ Individual Chess Championships (Gov. Henry Oaminal Cup) on Nov. 2 to 10 at the province’s Resort and Aquamarine Park.
The nine-day tournament is expected to draw more than the four GMs and six International Masters required for a tournament to be eligible to hand out an automatic GM title to the eventual champion
Apart from the GM title to the winner, the meet will also award an IM title and a GM norm to the second placer and an IM to the third placer in the open section while a WGM title will be staked in the women’s side.
Aside from the open and women’s sections of this ASEAN Chess Confederation-sanctioned event, there will be other divisions like 2000 and 1700 and below rated participants.
Expected to represent the country in the event are GMs Daniel Quizon, Joey Antonio, John Paul Gomez and Darwin Laylo as well as WGM Janelle May Frayna while the IMs that are joining are Pau Bersamina, Jem Garcia, Ricky de Guzman, Chito Garma, Ronald Bancod and Michael Concio, Jr.
The event, to be held at the newly constructed resort hotel dubbed as the Maldives of Mindanao, is being done to produce more titled players for the country and future national team players.
