The national squad arriving on Thursday from its solid effort in the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary will bring home something bigger than the gold medal it captured in Category B of the women’s section — a hope that the future will be bright.
And it was rightfully so after two youngsters emerged from the ashes of the raging battles waged at the BOK Sports Hall in the Hungarian capital — Daniel Quizon and Ruelle Canino.
Both Quizon, 19, and Canino, 16, held their own against stronger, more experienced opponents with the former claiming the Grandmaster title in the same tournament and the latter gaining 102 whopping points that should propel her from 2004 to 2260 counting the points she earned in a couple of events in Europe the month before.
The Cagayan de Oro lass was so impressive that he scored six points out of the possible eight including mammoth-sized victories over Women GMs Claudia Amura of Argentina and Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky of Romania.
Canino was even winning against former United States champion International Master Anna Zatonskih before inexperience caught up with her and faltered in the end.
Girme Fontanilla, who was part of the legendary team that finished 22nd in the 1988 edition in Thessaloniki, Greece which is the highest finish by our women’s team in the Olympiad, was among those who were impressed by Canino’s debut.
“She’s a great talent,” Fontanilla said.
For Quizon, he scored 5.5 points out of nine at board two including several draws against formidable super GMs.
“Given more experience and international exposure, those two should go places. We’re also seeing two promising young players who could be fixtures of our national teams for a very long time,” said national women’s coach and NCFP chief executive officer GM Jayson Gonzales.
The team was sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission and backed by National Chess Federation of the Philippines chief Butch Pichay, delegation head Atty. Ruel Canobas, women’s team manager Atty. Nikki de Vega and Far Eastern University chairperson Gigi Montinola.