Thursday, June 04, 2009

Barcenilla is New Pinoy GM

Pinoy chess fans rejoiced today as they learned of news that yet another of their countrymen has become the next grandmaster. Campaigning in the Copper State International Chess Championships in Arizona, USA - international master Rogelio Barcenilla beat GM Zviad Izoria of Georgia to bag his third and final GM norm.

That game is available on the USCF website.

Barcenilla will be the Philippines' 12th grandmaster. The others are Wesley So, Eugene Torre, JP Gomez, Mark Paragua, Rogelio Antonio Jr., Darwin Laylo, Joseph Sanchez, Bong Villamayor, Jayson Gonzales, Nelson Mariano and the late Rosendo Balinas Jr.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well deserved and long overdue title for Barcenilla.

No thanks to Abundo and Campo who blocked his GM FIDE approval over 10 years ago.

Anonymous said...

Big deal!

Anonymous said...

Big deal is right.

Talent and justice always wins out over greed and corruption.

Barcenilla was one of the many unsupported young Filipino chess talents during Campos' reign.

Hopefully Sevillano can get his GM title too.

Ted Teodoro said...

Congrats to Barcenilla. Twelve GMs, wonderful. IM Sevillano plays often, and so he isn't under any constraint to earn his GM title. He just has to earn it. And there's IM Angelo Young in Chicago. He hasn't been playing lately.