The highly successful inaugural WR Bughouse Championships staged early last month at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taguig will have a reprise — the WR Bughouse Open set on 29 August at the Quezon City MICE Center.

More than a hundred participants are expected to participate including top masters from the country and in Asia for a chance to vie for a share of the total cash pot worth P620,000 including P100,000 to the eventual champion.

Isaac Chiu and Janak Awwatramani of Deep Waters bested Grandmaster Andrew Tang and FIDE Master Richard Zheng of The Angry Birds to rule the first staging of the event that was also participated in by World No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura and organizing WR founder Wadim Rosenstein.

Interestingly, Rosenstein, a multi-million organizer and sponsor of top notch players in chess, is one of the three who is running for president of FIDE, the sport’s world governing body, in polls set in September.

Known as transfer chess, the one-day event will have a qualifying stage with the top 16 advancing to the knockout rounds to determine the titlist and the second and third placers, the latter two receiving P70,000 and P50,000, respectively.

Aside from the podium finishers, the top 20 will also go home with a prize, the lowest at P5,000 with winners in the following categories — junior (U20), youth (U16), kiddie (U14), senior (50+), mixed, female, school and NCFP affiliated club — each pocketing P5,250.

Supporting the event are the National Chess Federation of the Philippines, host city Mayor Joy Belmonte and Vice Mayor Gian Carlo Sotto and the city’s Sports Development Office and the Philippine Sports Commission.