EXPECT more young and talented female players to make the right move and play chess in the coming years.

WIMs Marie Antoinette San Diego and Kylen Joy Mordido hope more female chess players will take up the game especially after the country’s successful performance in the recent FIDE World Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India.

“We really talked about doing our best in the Oympiad and bringing honors to the country,” chorused San Diego and Mordido during their special appearances in the 35th “Sports on Air” via Zoom last Thursday.

“We also want to help promote the sport. We want to encourage more female players to join us and play chess,” added San Diego and Mordido, the top two scorers in the five-player national team which finished a respectable 37th place overall in the recent Olympiad.

“Gusto naming magsilbing inspirasyon sa mga bagong players, gaya din ng pagbibigay sa amin ng inspirasyon ng mga nauna sa aming mga players.”

Asked about the opportunity to play in the world’s biggest chess stage, both San Diego and Mordido called the Chennai Olympiad a valuable learning experience.

“I’m very happy that I was able to improve my peformance (from Batumi to Chennai). Even our team, nag-improve from 67th place to 37th place. Hindi man ako nakakauha ng norm, naka-gain ako ng rating points,”said San Diego.

“So I can say it was really a good learning experience,” added San Diego,who finished with six points in nine rounds in the Olympiad.

“Sobrang happy din ako sa naging performance ko dahil hindi ko ito ini-expect lalo na alternate lang ako playing on board five,” said Mordido,who had 6.5 points on four wins, five draws and only one loss in 10 rounds.

“Pero naging maganda naman ang laro ko, kaya nagtuloy-tuloy ako. Kalimitan mas higher seeds nga sa akin yun mga nakalaban ko. Pero sabi nga ni GM Jayson (Gonzales), wag namin tignan yun ratings at lagi namin isipin na kapantay lang namin sila sa strength. Focus lagi,” explained Mordido.

Both San Diego and Mordido also asked for prayers for the immediate recovery of long-time national women’s coach GM Jayson Gonzales.

Joining San Diego and Mordido in the weekly online sports program are GMs Eugene Torre, Rogelio Barcenilla Jr. And Darwin Laylo and IM Paulo Bersamina.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ed Andaya