Three Cebuanos Compete in ASEAN Youth Chess

After becoming a Candidate Master in the 11th Asian Schools Chess Championship, Cebuano chess whiz kid Jerish John Velarde will join two other local players in the 64-person Philippine delegation to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Age Group Chess Championship in Singapore.

This is Velarde’s third international tournament in just eight weeks.

He finished at 11th place, after placing as high as third in the middle rounds in the 2015 Fide World Schools Individual Chess Championship in Thailand last May.

He also got a silver medal in the11th Asian Schools Chcess Championship Under 9 division, also in Singapore just last weekend and will be going for the gold in his latest tournament.

He had seven wins and two losses in the tournament and earned the title Candidate Master for finishing within the top three.

His father, John, said he hoped that his showing in the previous two tournaments will help him prepare in his latest international foray.

“Jerish had already shown his maturity during the world tournament in Thailand and has proven he can stay in a long game. It is a good sign and IM Kim Yap has added more to his skills,” he said.

The younger Velarde said he easily gets frustrated before, leading to his blunders in some of his matches last year.

IM Yap, who thinks Velarde can be a future Grandmaster, has helped prepare the kid for his international stints.

“We gave Jerish tough tune-up matches and we had him play data base games, concentrating more on his openings and references. Then we reviewed his games and we solved puzzles regularly,” Yap said.

The eight-year-old will be joined by Cebuanos Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano and Laila Camel Nadera in the ASEAN tournament, who got their spots in the Asean tournament after topping the national qualifiers last April.

Sevillano is an incoming freshman at Far Eastern University and will join the Under 16 division, while Nadera is a 10th grader of the University of San Carlos. (PNA) LAP/EB/MP/EDS