QUEEN OF THE NORTH. Women chess players from Northern Luzon are invited to participate in the Queen of the North chess tournament in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte on Dec. 17-23, 2023. The event aims to promote the game of chess among young female players. (Photo from UP Vanguard)
LAOAG CITY – Female chess players from the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, and Cordillera regions are encouraged to join the regional chess meet scheduled in this city on Dec. 17-23, which aims to discover the “Queen of the North.”
“The Queen of the North chess tournament, to be held at the Ilocos Norte National High School gymnasium, will be a historic event for women chess players as we will be conducting it outside the national chess championships. It will be an all-female chess competition to entice more women in this field of male-dominated sports,” Aldwin Galapon, chairperson of the UP Vanguard, Inc., said in an interview Tuesday.
Galapon said aside from winning cash prizes ranging from PHP20,000 to PHP100,000, inclusive of trophy and medals, for the top five winners, the first and second placers in the standard chess tournament would be awarded a national women's master title while the third to fifth placers would receive the national women’s master title norm.
The tournament, he said, would be played based on the rules of play of the International Chess Federation.
“The games shall be played using electronic clocks. The time control is 90 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1 and the default time is 30 minutes after the starting game,” he added.
Online registration has begun and will be held until Dec. 10 through www.102ndhomecoming.upvanguard.org/-queen-of-the-north/.
Registration fee is PHP1,500 for members of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and PHP1,200 for non-members. (PNA)
