Scrabble tourney in honor of Roger Abella this Sunday

The cebu City Sports Commission and the Abella clan will organize a scrabble tournament in honor of Ka’ Roger Abella this Sunday at Robinsons Fuente.

The tournament will be dubbed Roger Abella Memorial Open Scrabble Tournament, and it is sponsored by Rose Pharmacy and the Knights of Columbus Mabolo Chapter.

Abella, considered the father of scrabble in Cebu, succumbed to liver cancer at the age of 61 last year. He was a FIDE Arbiter and chess National Master (NM).

Abella was the founder of the Cebu Scrabble Association Inc. (CSAI), and served as its president since 1996. He was also a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Abella was also inducted into the Cebu Sports Hall of Fame for being a Prisaa standout and played for the Philippine chess team during his glory years.

He was also the member of the national team that dominated the first Asian chess team competition in the 1970s.  In 2012, Abella was one of the people who was behind Cebu City’s Guinness World Record for the largest chess tournament.

His wife, Marilyn, took over his responsibility and is now a very active organizer of scrabble and chess tournaments in Cebu. She will be organizing the tournament on Sunday.

At stake for the winner will be P5,000 and a trophy. Runners-up will receive P3,000 and P1,500, respectively.  Special awards will be given to the highest single turn and highest single game. They will each receive P500 with a medal.

Aside from the open division, there will also be competition for secondary and elementary players.

Registration fee for the professional/open division is pegged at P500. The fee for non-professional scrabble players is at P450 and P300 for the secondary and elementary divisions.

Interested participants can  contact Jullence Labalan at 0923-914-9472 and Charmaine Doblar at 0925-502-6038. Deadline of registration is on Saturday.