‘Learn and Play Chess with the Masters’ set
ALL chess roads lead to E. Rodriguez Jr. High School in Mayon Ave., Quezon City as international masters Angelo Young and Idelfonso Datu and FIDE Instructor Chiara Reina Lim-Datu hold the much-awaited “Learn & Play Chess with the Masters 2” simultaneous exhibition matches on Feb. 23.
Young, who was inducted into the ERJHS Sports Hall of Fame in 2016, and the Datu couple will conduct chess clinic and play simultaneous exhibition games againt select alumni and students of the leading public high school in Quezon City.
An annual undertaking of the ERJHS Alumni Sports Club in cooperation with the ERJHS Alumni Association, the one-day event will begin at 9 a.m. on Feb. 23 at the Audio-Visual Room.
The event will also serve as one of the highlights of ERJHS 73rd Foundation Day and Grand Alumni Homecoming on Feb. 22-23.
Young was also one of the nominees for the prestigious.10 Most Outstanding Alumni award for being the only ERJHS graduate to earn an IM title.
Datu, one of the country’s leading IMs and chess instructors, served as program director for chess of Ateneo de Manila for nearly 20 years, while wife Chiara is a licensed FIDE instructor and president of the Sudeco Polytechnic Integrated College.
ERJHS Alumni Sports Club president Ed Andaya of Batch 81 said the top 25 players in a seven-round elimination tournament to be played on Feb. 21 will be eligible to play in the 35-board simultaneous exhibition matches on Feb. 23.
Joining them in the chess simul are 10 select alumni-participants.
Expected to grace the event are ERJHS Alumni Association president Ramon Ferreros of Batch 73 and ERJHS principal Ernest Ferrer.
The “Learn and Play Chess” is actually the fourth installment of the extensive chess program initiated by the ERJHS Alumni Sports Club.
Previously held were the first “Isulong Mo with GM Eugene Torre” with the Meralco Chess Club at the Barangay N. S. Amoranto on Feb. 22, 2018; the second “Isulong Mo with GM Eugene Torre and IM Angelo Young” simultaneous chess exhibition matches on May 22, 2023; and the first “Learn and Play Chess” with IM Datu and FA Rudy Ibanez on June 30, 2023.
