Published March 4, 2021, 1:40 PM
Young FIDE Master Alekhine Nouri stunned Grandmaster Banjo Barcenilla, GM Mark Paragua and the rest of the stacked field to emerge victorious in the GM and Attorney Rosendo Carreon Balinas Jr. online bullet chess online tournament held via Lichess.org on Monday, March 1.
The 15-year-old Nouri, who was named after Russian-French world champion Alexander Alekhine, amassed 144 points in 65 games to win the 585-strong tourney held as part of the 108th birthday celebration of the late Rosendo Padilla Balinas Sr.
Nouri, who became the youngest FM in the world at the age of seven back in 2013, came through with a whopping 63 percent win rate and performance rating of 2698.
Published January 7, 2021, 3:05 PM
The Philippines was granted one outright berth to the FIDE World Cup 2021 where the top two finishers will qualify directly to the World Candidates matches leading to the 2022 World Championship.
National Chess Federation of the Philippines executive director Cliburn Orbe said they would give that slot to the eventual winner of the national championship it is planning to hold before the deadline for submission of entry on June 5 this year.
“Good news, FIDE has given the Philippines an automatic seed to the World Cup. Our national champion is automatically entered,” said Orbe in a post in the NCFP’s official Facebook page.