THE Shenzhen Pengcheng Chess Club, one of China’s leading chess schools, is taking part in the 2021 PCAP San Miguel Corporation-Ayala Land chess championships.

To be known as the Checkered Dragons, the Shenzhen Pengcheng Chess Club will be one of the four foreign guest teams vying in the season-ending third conference of the country’s first play-for-pay league.

The team will be represented by eight of the club’s leading players.

“The Shenzhen, China-based team is a welcome addition to the PCAP family in our third conference,” said PCAP president-commissioner Atty. Paul Elauria in an interview with People’s Tonight.

“The Shenzhen Pengcheng Chess Club, which was established in 2005, is a non-profit organization specializing in chess sports and culture,”added Elauria.

It aims to popularize chess education, promote chess culture, train and explore chess talents and take in-class popularization, extracurricular improvement, and out-of-school strengthening as the development policy, according to the club resume.

The club consists of nine departments: office, personnel department, competition department, finance department, activity planning department, kindergarten training department, primary school training department, reserve talent training base, professional team and so on.

The club provides unified teaching arrangement, projector configuration, audio-visual teaching and high-standard teaching environment.

It has more than 120 professional coaches, popularizes more than 200,000 students, and trains more than 5,000 professional students. It has not only greatly promoted the in-depth development of quality education, but also trained a young team of self-esteem, self-confidence and self-improvement.

The club has a professional training team that has formed low, medium and high training echelons and excellent chess skills, which has added honor to a number of cooperative schools and kindergartens in chess competition in Shenzhen.

The club’s activities are fully supported by the Ministry of Education and the State Administration of Sports.

The three other foreign guest teams are Malaysia, represented by the Penang Blue Panthers; Thailand, represented by DB Bangkok; and Singapore.

Elauria said the four foreign teams and three guest local teams will join the top eight qualifiers in both the North and South divisions starting next month

Leading the participants are PCAP All-Filipino champion Laguna Heroes and runner-up Camarines Soaring Eagles; and PCAP-GM Wesley So Cup champion Iloilo Kisela Knights and runner-up San Juan Predators.

Also seeing action are Manila Indios Bravos, Caloocan Load Manna Knights, Rizal Towers, Pasig Pirates, Isabela Knight Raiders, Cavite Spartans, Cagayan Kings, and Olongapo Rainbow in the North; and Cordova Dagami Warriors, Negros Kingsmen, Toledo Trojans, Surigao Fianchetto Checkmates, Lapu-Lapu Naki Warriors, Mindoro Tamaraws, Palawan Queen’s Gambits, Cebu City Machers and Iriga Oragons.

Three member-teams — Antipolo Cobras, Quezon City Simba’s Tribe and Zamboanga Sultans — took a leave of absence in the third conference.

PCAP is headed by Elauria, Chairman Michael Angelo Chua and Vice Chairman Ariel Potot.

The tournament is sanctioned by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB), headed by Chairman Abraham “Baham” Mitra and supported by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP), led by President/Chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay.