GM Bitoon to compete in Blas Hipulan chess

Medellin’s chess pride Grand Master (GM) Richard Bitoon already confirmed his participation in this Friday’s “Engineer Blas Hipulan and Deep Blue Open Chess Tournament” at the Deep Blue Café in SM City Cebu.

GM Bitoon will vie against some of the country’s best pawnpushers including a host of International Masters who will battle for the P40,000 top prize in the Open division according to FIDE arbiter and tournament director Felix Poloyapoy.

Around 70 wood pushers have already enlisted in the Open division and 60 in the Kiddies category as of this writing.

“We are expecting more rated players to compete in the three day tournament, they will be determined this Friday because most of them will register at the last minute. But for now, we already have GM Bitoon and IM Emmanuel Emperado as the top registrants. With them, this tournament will surely be more exciting,” said Poloyapoy.

The tournament will be a nine-round Swiss system rapid event and will be sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).

Meanwhile, players to watch in the Kiddies division include Shell Youth Active Chess National champion Vic Glyzen Derotas and her teammates from the University of San Carlos-Basic Education Department (USC-BED) as well as the talented Balbona siblings.

The top Kiddies winner will receive P2,000.

Registration fee in the Open division is P350 and P200 in the Kiddies class.