By: Aj Borcena
Pictures by: Aj Borcena and Rae Cza Gonatice
The competition for chess both Elementary and Secondary occurred during the first day of UCPSAM 2024 (October 10, 2024). It took place at the library of Divine Word College of Urdaneta, Inc., and it started at exactly 9:20 in the morning. The competition had a knock-out and single elimination type of tournament as there were a lot of players, a knock-out tournament in chess involves players facing each other and whoever is the winner of the match advances to the next round, while the one who loses exits the tournament. Each school participating can have a maximum of eight participants and they will have a board 1 and a board 2, two boys and two girls for both elementary chess and secondary chess. The following are ICE’s representatives for chess in the UCPSAM 2024, for the elementary chess we have Earl Samantha Oribado, Curt Brylle Almario, and Enrico Miguel Caoile. The secondary chess representatives are Yrelle Manongsong, Loraine Legaspi, Leander Escobar, and Carl Padilla. The coach for both the elementary chess and secondary chess is Ma’am Angel Antolin.
The competition brought many challenges and headaches to the participants and it made their coaches as well as their parents and friends anxious as they could only watch and support their players silently. Many excellent moves were played all throughout the competition that impressed the arbiters. All of the competitions are done on the first day except one match, this match is between the secondary board 1 male representatives of the International Colleges for Excellence Inc. and board 1 male representatives of Merryland Montessori and High School, Inc. Everything is on the line for these players as whoever wins this match would then compete in the CSDAM. The match took place on the second day of the UCPSAM (October 11, 2024) and it lasted for almost two hours.
“Pinagbutihan ko po magtraining before yung competition para umimprove pa po yung skills ko, nirecall ko po yung mga openings na tinuro sakin ng trainer ko and his advices po”, Yrelle said when she was asked, what preparations did she do for her competition. Furthermore, she said “My family, the ICE community po, feel na feel ko po talaga yung support nila this UCPSAM, at dahil last year ko na po na pwede pong maglaro, pinagbutihan ko na po talaga kasi next year po taga nood nalang ako.” as she answered the question who or what became her biggest support during the UCPSAM season. In the end, ICE’s chess representatives managed to bag four gold medals and 1 silver medal.
Gold Medalists:
Board 1 Girls Secondary – Yrelle Manongsong
Board 2 Girls Secondary – Loraine Legaspi
Board 1 Boys Secondary – Leander Escobar
Board 2 Boys Secondary – Carl Padilla
Silver Medalist:
Board 2 Boys Elementary – Enrico Caoile