ARENA Grandmaster Rey Urbiztondo, newly appointed National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) coordinator for Region 10 and 11, announced the 3rd Conference opening of the Association of Chess Amateurs of the Philippines Inc ( ACAPI) online chess development league on Friday, December 20, via the chess.com platform.
The Acapi chessfest, which has a guaranteed three conferences a year, saw the domination of Mindanao teams in its previous two meetings.
The last time around, it attracted 22 teams comprised of 500 amateur players, trading pieces in six categories: Seniors, Open, High School, Elementary, Female, and PWDs.
“Dakong tabang kini nga chess tourney for talent development at the grassroots level. Malingaw sab ang mga seniors nga nagpabiling amateur apan very passionate to compete in this national event,” said Urbiztondo, also the Acapi’s founding head, who sponsored the first conference dubbed as President’s Cup and won by the Panabo Knights Chess Club from Davao del Norte.
The Davao City Durianburg Stallions stole the show in the 2nd Conference, winning the overall supremacy after ruling both the Acapi’s 1st President’s Cup Chess Team Skirmishes II’s Open and Youth divisions while making the top three in the Under-12, female and PWD categories.
This, as the ageless troika of Urbiztondo, Reynaldo Quinonez, and Joselito Serna from the Surigao Diamond Knights shared the limelight by upstaging the defending champion Cebu Madridejos in a tiebreaker for the Senior division’s top honors.
