The Chess room is once again alive with familiar sights and sounds and the energetic spirit of the MGCNLCA Chess team after more than two years of silence because of the pandemic.
The players’ laughter and chatter echo through the room and are no longer regarded as noise but as missed sounds. Physical chess boards have seen the light of day and the clinks of the chess pieces are heard. Players are now surrounded by each other as they power through chess puzzles, sharing actual high fives instead of virtual thumbs-ups, furrowing their brows as they go back and forth with possible answers with their coaches, not worrying about online lagging.
“It feels great once again to be back to face-to-face training! I get to interact with teammates, touch the chess pieces and clocks and play matches with my team,” exclaims U-14 team captain Allie Ong.
The Chess team meets every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and has a mix of face-to-face and online training.
Online training was retained as its advantages were seen over the pandemic. “There are several apps [online] that you can use for the players. We noticed that their improvement is faster, using those apps like Chess.com or Lichess,” explains head coach Simeon Co.
However, face-to-face training is needed too for players to familiarize themselves with face-to-face tournament rules as in-person tournaments are expected soon.
Players and coaches shared that they have hopes for soaring high this school year. “I’d say we’re all doing great [this year]. The younger generations, I think, like the lower batches are actually really good,” comments 10th-grade team member Sebastian Gonzaga.
Last July, Caleb Garcia of the grade school team and Allie Ong and Davin Romualdez of the high school team competed in the National Age Group Chess Championship 2022 Grand Finals. They landed a standing in the top ten and some won or drew games against opponents with National Chess Master Titles.
The team is setting its eyes, for now, on the Batang Pinoy 2022 competition happening this December. “Our chess team [was] asked by the city government of Taguig to represent the Taguig team for the incoming Batang Pinoy,” head coach Hubert Estrella proudly mentions.
One of the strengths of the MGCNLCA Chess Team is that players are easy to train. “If you teach them tactics, you can teach them in one go. They understand, their pick-up and commonsense is high-level,” says Coach Co.
A point the team is working on is catering to the different levels of the players as some players are advanced and others are just starting. To address this, the coaches have decided to divide the levels of training into five, each with different modules.
When asked what the team's goals were, Coach Co replies, “It’s always been our goal since day one, [since] we started, for all the players graduating in MGCNL [that] they should be at least collegiate level.” He hopes that MGCNLCA chess players will get into the chess teams of top universities such as those of UP, La Salle, and Ateneo.
The MGCNLCA Chess team comes back strong despite the pandemic, with their passion to keep competing and playing still unbroken.