BISDAK (Bisayang Dako) woodpushers from the Visayas and Mindanao will duel it out with the best from Luzon and the country’s capital city in the Asenso Pinoy Open Blitz Chess Championship starting tomorrow.

Already, Grandmaster Rogelio Antonio Jr of Manila and Fide Master Sander Severino of Bacolod City have registered in the two-day online event, thereby ensuring a quality strong cast in the master ranks that have been automatically seeded for Sunday’s finale.

With no entry fee, around a hundred non-masters are expected to join the elimination games on Saturday via the chess.com platform to select the top-20 performers that will challenge the titled ones bannered by the 13-time Philippine Open ruler Antonio and World IPCA (International Physically Disabled Chess Association) champion Severino.

Also on the list are FMs Austin Jacob Literatus and Vince Alaan, National Masters Christian Gian Karlo Arca, Jonathan Tan, Alexander Lupian, Levi Mercado, Merben Roque, Zulfikar Sali, and Glennen Artuz, Woman National Master Ruelle Canino and newly-conferred Honorary NM Rey Urbiztondo.

The hunt for a total of P20,000 in cash prizes will be a wide-open race.

“Busa ayaw na katingala kon ugaling dili master ang mo-champion kay piti pud kaayo ang tirada sa mga non masters karon in chess competition with short time control,” warned one untitled player from Cagayan de Oro.

NM Henry Lopez will oversee the online challenge in his capacity as tournament director in the company of National Arbiter Ely Acas.

“Asenso Pinoy acknowledges more support for sports development and it chooses chess as one of the best and old sports disciplines. With the proliferation of online chess games, it is but fit to have an online individual chess championship while everyone is still observing the pandemic protocols imposed by the government,” Lopez said.

The champion will get the lion’s share of P8,000 with the second and third placers to go home with P4,000 and P2,000 each.

The fourth and fifth finishers will receive P1,000 and P500 apiece. Sixth to 10th placers will pocket P300 each, while the 11th up to 20th placers will settle for P200 each.

The rest of the top-30 finishers will be given P100 as a consolation prize.