Bautista leads cast in Milo checkmate finals

Fourteen-year old Paolo Bautista led 11 other young chessers into the final round of the selection tournament for the members of the Milo Checkmate team that will compete in the US in June next year.

Bautista scored 7.5 points after nine rounds of play in the junior division to earn one of the 12 semifinal slots along with 17-year-old Dexter Dacanay, Carlos Feliciano (20), Jaroz Felipe (11), Menachem Loyola (11), Aaron Khrisna Rivas (12), John Robin Buenavista (11), Emmanuel Eumir Songcuya II (10), Jude Emil Fronda ((9), seven-year old Christy Lamiel Bernales, seven-year old Jan Jodilyn Fronda and six-year old Jan Emmanuel Garcia.

The 12 semifinalists will join the six-seeded players — nine-year old Gabriel Layugan, Bruce Alfred Reyes (11), Rommelle delos Santos (11), Franz Enrico Cruz (16), Angelo Macaraig (12) and Amran Ezra Rivas (10) — members of the first Milo Checkmate squad that placed second in the 2001 Beijing International Invitational Youth Chess tournament held last July in Beijing, China.

The tournament will apply the Round Robin system and time control of 45 minutes per player to select the nine members of the team for the year 2002. Games will start at 9 a.m. on Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

The event is a special project of the Metropolitan Chess Club to give young but potential and promising Checkmate kids the chance to gain international exposure at an early age.