Pinay chess player dies after car crash

MANILA, Philippines — Filipina-Australian Arianne Caoili, one of the finest female chess players the country has ever produced, passed away yesterday due to injuries sustained in a car crash in Yerevan, Armenia two weeks ago. She was 33.

Caoili represented the Philippines in the World Chess Olympiad in 1998 and 2000.

“I have no words to express my grief over my wife Arianne’s death,” said Caoili’s husband, Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian in his Twitter account @LevAronian.

Born in Manila, Caoili, then 12, made it to the national team to the Olympiad in Elista, Russia in 1998 and suited up again for Team Phl in Istanbul, Turkey in 2000.

Caoili left the country in 2004 and played in five more Olympiads, representing Australia. She topped the London Chess Classic and the Oceania Women’s Zonal Championship in 2009 to qualify to the Women’s World Championship in 2010.