CEBU CITY, Philippines — After the successful first two conferences of the Wesley So Cup, the country’s largest online chess tournament, the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) is planning to stage its third conference next month.
The second edition which was sponsored by Filipino chess Grand Master (GM) Wesley So featured foreign elite woodpushers that served as imports for each of the 24 competing teams.
It capped off with a resounding success with the Iloilo Kisela Knights winning the overall title by beating the San Juan Predators in the grand finals.
But the third conference will be completely different.
The third conference will be dubbed “PCAP 3rd Conference San Miguel Corporation-Ayala Land Premier Cup” as the two major brands sponsor the upcoming tournament.
However, the tipoff is yet to be announced.
From signing foreign elite woodpushers, the third conference will also invite foreign teams from Europe and Asia as guest teams.
They also invited the Philippine Paralympic Chess Team and the Philippine under-16 national team also as guest squads.
Currently, there are four Cebu-based teams vying in the tournament.
They are the Cordova Dutchess Dagami Warriors, the Toledo City Trojans, Lapu-Lapu City Naki Warriors, and the Cebu City Machers.
The Dagami Warriors which was the top-seed in the playoffs managed to reach the south division finals but was eliminated by the Kisela Knights.
However, they cap off their campaign with an overall third-place finish by beating inaugural champions, the Laguna Heroes.
The Trojans were the second-highest achiever among the four Cebu-based teams after they reached the quarterfinals where they lost to the Kisela Knights.
The Naki Warriors and the Machers, on the other hand, failed to advance to the playoffs. /rcg