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Philippines’ first professional chess league receives green light
Joey Villar (Philstar.com) – September 15, 2020 – 3:28 pm
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Professional Chess Association will have the distinction of being the first professional chess league in the country.
Games and Amusement Board Chairman Abraham Mitra said yesterday that they approved PCAP’s application for professional status and that the group that formed it will make an official announcement of its programs in an online press at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
“We are proud at GAB that the Philippines will have its first professional chess league,” Mitra said. “PCAP is to chess what PBA / NBA is to basketball.
Mitra said the PCAP is expected to attract the best teachers, ladies and seniors in the country, who will be under contract with minimum and maximum wages and salary caps.
The exchange of players will also be allowed, as in basketball.
“We want to place chess players at a height comparable to other professional athletes,” Mitra said.
The PCAP hopes to contribute to the country’s hope of producing more world-caliber players such as Eugene Torre, Asia’s first Grandmaster, Wesley So, a Philippine-born chesser who once ranked second in the world, and Mark Paragua, the first Filipino to break the 2600 mark and achieve “super GM” status.
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