Senate resolution hails newest chess grandmaster

SENATE Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III has submitted a resolution commending Daniel Quizon for becoming the 19th Filipino chess grandmaster. On September 15, the 20-year-old Quizon clinched the grandmaster title after beating Grandmaster Igor Efimov of Monaco and gaining the 2500 rating for GM during the ongoing 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary. The Chess Olympiad is the premier international tournament of the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE). In the proposed Senate Resolution 201, Pimentel said that Quizon, who hails from Cavite, has excelled as an elite player in various chess tournaments. He became an International Master at the Asian Juniors Open Championships in Gangneung, South Korea, in 2018, was the Milo Junior Male Athlete of the Year in 2019, a gold medalist at the Eastern Asia Youth Chess Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2019, and qualified for the Chess World Cup in 2021, Pimentel said Quizon completed the required three norms before becoming a GM as a teenager. He earned the first norm in February 2023 during the AQ Prime Asean Chess Championship and the second in December of the same year after winning the Open division title in the Eastern Asia Juniors and Girls Chess Championship. Quizon won his third and final required norm during the last leg of the Hanoi Grandmaster Chess Tournament in Vietnam in March 2024. "Quizon's success is our country's success and also serves as an inspiration to the youth," Pimentel said.