Manila-Laguna, San Juan-Caloocan banner PCAP 3rd Conference opener

MANILA, Philippines – The season-ending third conference of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines, the PCAP-San Miguel Corporation-Ayala Land Premier Cup gets underway tonight. 

The first half of the two-month long tourney finds 21 Filipino clubs competing for the right to advance to the second round where the foreign and local guest teams await them.

The San Juan Predators, denied in the first two conferences where they finished fourth and second respectively, face off against the similarly stacked and loaded Caloocan LoadManna Knights.

In another big match of the Wednesday night opener featuring title favorites, the Manila Indios Bravos go up against the Laguna Heroes, the first ever PCAP champions who took the All-Filipino Cup. 

San Juan hopes that the addition of IM Ronaldo Nolte will be the missing piece to their title aspirations while Caloocan also added their own IM in Domingo Ramos who played for the Mindoro Tamaraws in the All-Filipino Cup.

Although the Manila Indios Bravos lost IM Deniel Causo to the Double Bishop Bangkok team, they picked up another sterling player in IM Chito Garma. 

The Laguna Heroes didn’t sit pat on their talented lineup as they also picked up another former Mindoro player in Michaela Concio, who will back-stop Karen Jean Enriquez on Board Three.

Other matches on opening night include recently crowned Wesley So Cup champions, Iloilo Kisela Knights taking on the Palawan-Albay Queen’s Gambit that added WNM Ludivina Nadera.

The matches of the PCAP-San Miguel Corporation-Ayala Land Premier Cup can be viewed on the Facebook page of PCAP as well as their respective teams.