SATURDAY night was not quite good for Philippine chess as Grandmaster Jayson Gonzales landed in a hospital due to a heart attack, while Iligan City’s former top junior player Khimmie King met a brutal end at the hands of still unidentified gunmen.
GM Gonzalez, who coached the Philippine women’s team in the recent World Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India, is still at St Luke’s hospital as his attending physician is preparing him for heart surgery anytime.
“My son, Jayson Gonzales is now at the emergency room but later he would be at (the operating room) as the doctor is preparing him for heart surgery, I’m appealing to the Churches of God brethren to please pray fervently for God’s intervention,” said his mother, Emilia Gonzales.
The country’s 9th chess Grandmaster and long-time head coach of the Philippine Women’s Chess Team and Far Eastern University in the UAAP, underwent an emergency angioplasty to save his life.
As of the moment, he is still at the CCU (an ICU for coronary patients), under strict observation.
“His angiogram results further revealed more problems in his heart. The right side of his heart showed many blocked/narrowed vessels. This means that there are still more procedures to be done for GM Jayson’s recovery,” said Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna as she appealed for help from the local chess community.
“Coronary procedures are very costly, and although he has an HMO, the costs covered are very limited. The running bill as of now is at 600k, and the way it looks the billing may even balloon to millions,” said Frayna, an FEU Tamaraw alumnus who became the country's top female chess player under Gonzales’ stewardship.
On the same night, the shocking news of Khimmie King’s brutal death came across Philippine chess as relayed first on social media by Iligan chessers Cecil Cuevas and Arena Grandmaster Julius Augustine Ablin.
The youthful King, who used to dominate Northern Mindanao chess in the junior division, was walking along the street of Iligan City’s so-called ‘Little Marawi’ area when he was shot for no apparent reason.
Witnesses heard at least three gunshots, specifically at Zone 6, Andrada Heights, Barangay Del Carmen near Brew Cafe, where King was found still gasping for breath and bathed in his own blood.
“I immediately called for an ambulance when I passed him by as he was still alive at that time,” said one motorist Jake Balanay.
Cuevas told Gold Star Daily that King was a good fellow and he never had any quarrel at Lai Lai Chess Club in Iligan.
“Somebody must have done it for robbery or just mere tripping because the place where he was killed was known as ‘Little Marawi’,” said Dep-Ed Iligan chess arbiter Arly Libayao.
AGM Ablin said King was very kind he would readily share his prize for snacks or food bonding with friends whenever he won a chess competition.
“We are so saddened by this senseless killing victimizing our chess brother. Hope that justice will be served the soonest possible,” Ablin said.
