ALL-Filipino Northern Conference runner-up San Juan Predators look to continue their winning ways by tapping former Ukraine champion GM Viktor Moskalenko in the coming Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) Reinforced- Wesley So Cup chess championships starting May 15.

Moskalenko, who now resides and represents Spain in international competitions, will bolster an already star-studded line-up that includes United States-based GM Oliver Barbosa, WIM Jan Jodilyn Fronda and IM Ricky de Guzman.

“GM Moskalenko is a welcome addition to the team. We’re excited to have him in the team in the coming Wesley So Cup,” said PCAP Chairman and San Juan team owner Michael Angelo Chua.

“We had several GMs that we considered, but GM Moskalenko was the unanimous choice of the San Juan coaches, headed by Hubert Estrella.” added Chua.

“GM Moskalenko has already practiced with the team and is raring to make an impact in these coming weeks.”

Chua said Moskalenko’s impressive record since winning the Ukraine championship in 1987 up to his transfer to Spain where he won three more championships in 2001, 2005 and 2007 should serve as inspiration to the rest of the San Juan team.

The 61-year-old champion from Odessa, Russia earned his GM title in 1992 and captured several international tournaments.

He is currently ranked No. 1,008 in the world by FIDE — No. 2,477 in standard, No. 2,506 in rapid and No. 2,442 in blitz.

Moshalenko is also the author of several top-selling chess books, including the Fabulous Budapest Gambit (2007), The Flexible French (2008), Revolutionize Your Chess (2009), The Wonderful Winawer (2010), The Perfect Pirc (2013), The Diamond Dutch (2014), The Even More Flexible French (2015), Training with Moska (2017), An Attacking Repertoire for White with 1.d4 (2019) and The Fully-Fledged French (2021).

The other members of the San Juan Predators are NM Michael Gotel, brothers Narquingden and Narquingel Reyes, Benjamin Esquejo, Narciso Gumila Jr., and Gavid Lloyd Ong.

He is also a noted FIDE senior coach, who specializes in theoretical articles.

Actually, San Juan is the second PCAP member-team to announce their import for the coming tournament.

Earlier, the Engr. Jojo Buenaventura-managed Camarines Soaring Eagles tapped WGM Marie Rachel Sebag as their foreign player.

. A three-time European Youth champion, Sebag will bring her expertise to the Camarines team seeking to improve its runner-up finish in the PCAP All-Filipino Conference.

The 35-year-old Sebag will reinforce a team that already boats of GM Mark Paragua, NMs Carlo Lorena, Ronald Llavanes and Virgen Gil Ruaya, Ellan Asuela and Ezraline Alvarez.

The tournament — the second to be staged by PCAP this year — is being supported by GM Wesley So and San Miguel Corporation.

All games are sanctioned by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB), headed by Chairman Abraham “Baham” Mitra.