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Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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Tough fighting games.
High Registration Costs, Grandmaster’s wife’s Shopping Angers Philippine Chess Masters
Filipino chess players are unhappy that National Chess Federation Philippines asks $300
dollars from each entrant in this year’s Manny Pacquiao Cup Asian Chess Continental despite
the fact that the famous boxing champ donated $100,000 to the organization to shoulder the
expenses for the said tournament.
“They should not charge anything because Pacquiao has paid for everything, including
the hotel accommodations and the prizes”, said a famous Filipino International Master who
refused to be named. He also criticized Grandmaster Eugene Torre, the chief organizing
official, for buying a $6,000 suit for the opening ceremony which never happened because of
Manny Pacquio’s absence. “This Grandmaster Torre has been pulling Philippine chess down
since the beginning, causing the Philippine Chess Federation to owe FIDE thousands of
dollars in debt since he started managing it. Now the Filipino Masters are illegal members
of FIDE because of him”, the same source added.
The tide of criticism started early this month as a “silent rumour” when the
erratically behaving wife of Grandmaster Torre named Marlene Torre was seen frantically
shopping personal wears and groceries three days after the Eugene Torre Foundation received
the $100,000 from Pacquiao.
One critic say “Mrs Torre was never interested in chess before, but now suddenly she is
in the middle of everything, especially the handling of the funds”. An attempt to get Manny
Pacquiao’s opinion was made but the boxing icon was not available for comments.–Cid Sitar,
Kalawe News.