STOCK PHOTO | Image by Seri from Unsplash

AUTOMATIC Grandmaster (GM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) titles will be at stake when the 6th ASEAN+ Individual Chess Championships-Gov. Henry Oaminal Cup unfurls on Monday at the Misamis Occidental Resort and Aquamarine Park in Ozamiz.

A total of six GMs and a slew of International and FIDE Masters (FMs) are seeing action in the tournament that drew 40 participants in the Open section, 37 in the women’s side and 108 in the challenger category of this tournament sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines.

Leading the country’s charge are GMs Daniel Quizon, John Paul Gomez and Darwin Laylo and International Masters (IMs) Pau Bersamina, Jem Garcia, Christian Gian Karlo Arca and Michael Concio, Jr., the last four hoping they could win the eight-day event and clinch an automatic GM title.

But winning the event, the strongest the country is hosting in recent years, is easier said than done as it drew a strong foreign challenge in GMs Nguyen Duc Hoa, Tran Tuan Minh and Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam.

Russian IM Miroslav Vlasenko, top seed IM Phan Tran Gia Phuc of Vietnam, second seed IM Munkhdalai Amilal of Mongolia and a group of strong Indian IMs in Kamotra Soham, V S Raahul, Ramesh Avinash are also seeing action.

Other notable entrants in the mix are IM Dang Hoang Son and Nguyen Quoc Hy, IM Zhenyong Jayden Wong of Singapore, FIDE Master Fabian Glen, Pitra Adyka and IM Nayaka Budhidharma of Indonesia, FM Wong Yinn Long of Malaysia.

The country’s very own WGM Janelle Mae Frayna will lead the women’s division alongside fellow WGMs Nguyen Thi Mai Hung and Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam as well as Mongolian Woman FIDE Master Batpelden Buyankhishig, Indonesian Woman International Master (WIM) Kaysa Latifah and two Russians in IM Evgenija Ovod and WIM Ekaterina Smirnova. — Joey Villar