Wood pushers who are Junior and Senior high school students are set to compete for the 1st University of the Cordilleras Jaguars online chess tournament set May 8 to 9.
The two-day event with free registration will be a 14-round chess tournament with cash prizes at stake. It will be played via Lichess, an open-source chess program.
UC Athletic Director Danilo Cong-o said the online event was supposed to be a free sports clinic but it did not materialize due to the restrictions during the pandemic.
Cong-o thanked the UC management for supporting the event while it also sourced out the cash incentives at P500 for the gold medalist, P300 for silver, P200 for bronze and P100 for the fourth to 10th placers along with e-certificates.
“But, of course, the tournament is not about the monetary prize. We want to give an avenue for our players to relax and continue their passion for chess,” Cong-o said, adding the activity is also a way to give an avenue for the athletes not to be bored or depressed in this pandemic.
The event was supposed to include elementary pupils but upon consultation with players and coaches, the young players might be hard up in the online chess.
The Department of Education still discourages the conduct of crowd-drawing events, including the regional and national sporting events like the Palarong Pambansa, which automatically cancels provincial and regional sporting meets in the grassroots level under the department.
Cong-o said after the online chess, they will look at other sporting events to be staged online. – Ofelia C. Empian
