MANILA, Philippines, January 6 ------ Chess players from the Philippines reigned supreme in the recently concluded Hong Kong Bauhinia U18 Chess Invitational.
The troika of Mark Jay Bacojo, Ayana Nicole Usman and Alexandra Sydney Paez ruled the main event of the tiff organized by the Hong Kong Chess Federation, which featured 22 junior players aged 10-17 from South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. The Filipinos finished ahead of their counterparts from Malaysia and Korea, who were the first- and second- runners-up of the team competition. Four nations competed with hosts Hong Kong ending up last in the main event.
Bacojo, meanwhile, also added two individual accolades to his name as he finished as the first runner-up in the two competitions, the main event and the "Blitz Bowl". In the main event, Bacojo finished second to Singapore's Wong Yen Hsiu Elliot while Yun Hungi clinched third place behind the Filipino. While in Blitz Bowl, Huh Isaak of Korea took the top honors. For the team competition, the Philippines helped the Asian Federation best Hong Kong to finish as champions in the category while home bets settled for the runner-up position.
Speaking about the event, Mr. Geoffrey Kao, the Honorary President of the Hong Kong Chess Federation, said, "Although chess is a mind sport, a 4-5 hour game demands no less energy than a typical physical sport, and the players also need to put in much time in training. I hope that more and more people in Asia will learn about chess as a mentally and physically rewarding intellectual sport and support our players."
Source: philstar.com
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