Grandmaster Darwin Laylo, Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Janelle Mae Frayna and Arena Grandmaster (GM) Roberto Suelo, Jr. expect rough sailing in the leong @64 Rapid Chess Challenge 2020 where they will be meeting a tough line of competitors on Sunday, January 19, 2020 at the Ang Mo Kio Community Club in Singapore.
The one-day rapid event (25 minutes time control format), backed by Filipino Jaime “Bong” Tiburcio, offers 1,000 Singapore dollar (P38,000) to the champion. It will coincide with the 64th birthday celebration of Fide Master (FM) Ignatius Leong.
Tournament director is Philip Chan while Chief Arbiter is Gan Yeow Beng and assisted by Filipino arbiter Erwin Tabor.
“It will be a very tough match against the Asian players (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and China). Not to be outdone are players from the Philippines as well Russia and Denmark,”said Laylo, the 2019 Manila Southeast Asian Games representative and two-time Chooks-to-Go National Rapid Chess Championships winner.
“We are expecting tough matches but we will try our best for flag and country,” said Suelo, the 1996 Philippine Junior champion, an active member of the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) in Singapore.
Other Filipinos joining the competition are International Master (IM) elect Edgar Reggie Olay, Fide Master Nelson Villanueva (FM), Fide Master Nelson “Elo” Mariano III, Arena Grandmaster (AGM) Christopher Diaz, Jimson Bitoon, Lincoln “Linky” Yap, Ronald Castro, Malik Gumama, Joshua Juaneza, Joseph Navarro and Robert Gene Mariano.
Bannering the local challenge in the tournament are tournament top seed Grandmaster (GM) elect Kevin Goh Weiming, International Master (IM) Chan Peng Kong, Fide Master (FM) Ashvin Sivakumar, Fide Master (FM) Shern Yang Jonathan Wong , Sean Christian Goh, Ethan Goh, Marcus Chen, Richard Lean and Ravind Ricnesh of Singapore.
Other notable participating are Fide Master (FM) Andrean Susilodinata of Indonesia, Fide Master (FM) Andrey Terekhov of Russia, Kok Love Steven Cheong of Malaysia, Tianle Deng of China and Klaus Yssing of Denmark.
In the youth challengers, top seed is Pin Zong Schuyler Tan of Singapore while second is Jayson Jacobo Tiburcio of the Philippines. Singapore based Pinoy Arcege Castillo Tan is 56th seed while local hopeful Alexander “Alex” Tan is 57th seed.