Make chess games spectator-friendly

MANILA, Philippines -  The following are pieces of advice for the National Chess Federation of the Philippines in connection with the recently concluded Campomanes Memorial Chess Tournament and the RP team to the Olympiad. The writer is a PR executive, chess fan and former chess columnist.

A. The giant demo boards were missing to the utter disappointment of spectators. Observers had to go down where the players were playing just to watch a game. As a result, it was impossible for the spectator to follow a game when the board was hardly visible since spectators were expected to keep a respectable distance from the players. This makes sense. But let’s not forget too that chess is supposed to be spectator-friendly. No wonder, many who came to watch the games left disappointed. The crowd courtesies of the past were nowhere to be found.

In the past, as early as the 1960s or even earlier, the chess federation was using giant demo boards planted before each playing pair showing every move just as the players were making them. These demo boards were manually operated unlike today’s electronically-operated demo boards in many chess tournaments abroad. But to many, they were more appealing even if they had to be manually operated by competent stewards.                   

With these giant boards, spectators can be seated in a grandstand like the Ninoy Aquino stadium viewing the games in comfort and without disturbing the players.

If the NCFP wants to continue popularizing the sport, these demo boards have to be restored. It was Campomanes himself who had those giant boards produced as he wanted the sport to gain wider popularity.

B. No player should be allowed to leave the playing hall in the middle of a tournament. Players who leave the playing hall for what ever reason should be accompanied by a tournament steward. This was always done during the days of Campomanes. With today’s proliferation of modern communication devices, it will be easier to communicate with players eager to get vital info on chess moves.

The Chinese player J. Zhou kept leaving the playing hall when his game against Darwin Laylo was nearing the end game. He should have been accompanied at all times by a playing marshal or official. I’m not saying he was cheating. But on one occasion, he returned some five minutes after Laylo had already made his move. People can easily suspect something irregular in such actions even if he had a good reason for disappearing. To avoid all this inconvenience, tournament officials should have assigned a marshal to all players who leave the playing hall even for some very important reason.

C. I’m glad that the federation has finally appointed IM Richard Bitoon to take the place of GM Rogelio Antonio. I was of course hoping that they would have selected IM Roland Salvador. He made big news in the Internet when he won an international tournament in Italy recently where he earned his third and final GM norm.

In that tournament, he defeated GM David Alberto of Luxumbourgh who totes an Elo rating of 2620 as against his 2495. Believe it or not, he had one queen and two rooks plus four pawns against his opponent’s two queens, two rooks and three pawns and yet he won convincingly.

He also drew with three other grandmasters, all of whom, except one, had ratings of mid 2500s. He finished the tournament undefeated in a six-way tie for first with five grandmasters. And to top it all, he won the tie-break to the surprise of every chess fan in Italy.

That’s why I believe he should be on the Philippine Olympic chess team. (For your information, I have a record of his game against David Alberto which I gathered from this Internet report.) I believe he will be our 13th grandmaster as he will have no difficulty in reaching 2500 unlike IM Ronald Dableo who is still on the 2440-level.