Philippine Sports News and Updates

Marikina will be the first city to add the sport of chess into its academic curriculum with the help of Asia’s first Grandmaster Eugene Torre.

To do this, Torre will demonstrate how the sport is played on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. in a Marikina school yet to be announced by the organizers.

Jundio Salvador, a member of the organizing committee, said that although the Department of Education had already instructed all public schools to add chess in their curriculum, Marikina will be the pilot city for the experimental program.

GMs Torre and Jayson Gonzales, who prepared the syllabus, will be the project’s main proponents, with chess being included in the curriculum starting at Grade III in the elementary level up to fourth year high school at the start of the 2009-2010 school year in June.

Salvador said that Torre believes playing chess could hone the minds of the youth to become future entrepreneurs. “The Philippines have a potential in the international stage. Look at the top ranked teams in chess, they are all first world countries. We believe that we can train future entrepreneurs if the youth learn to play chess."