Kidapawan girl vows to do more in chess
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By:
Edwin O. Fernandez
COTABATO CITY – She may
not have won the best prize in the recently concluded 2015 South East Asian Games
(SEAG), but for a 4th grader from Kidapawan City playing chess
against the best in the region have earned her a lot and vowed to strive for more.
Joannah Love Marie Olay, 9-year-old
pupil of Kidapawan City Central Pilot Elementary School, won bronze medals in
the ASEAN Games chess championship in Singapore.
”Playing against the best in the
region was already a reward,” she said. I have learned a lot from them, I have
developed strategies from how they played,” she said of her opponents that included
players from China, Mongolia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.
”The strategies they used were
awesome, they have the mastery of the game, I have done my best,” she added.Proud of the achievement of his
daughter, Regie Olay, said he now considers his girl national chess master.”
He said coming from Mindanao and
away from the center of sports which is Manila, the elder Olay said his daughter
has proven something. The young girl started playing chess at age three when
his father was making waves in various national chess competitions.
And as proud as his parents is the
Kidapawan City local government unit that it offered to provide the young chess
master cash incentives as reward for putting the city in the world map of
chess.
With the feat her daughter has
earned, the elder Olay also advised younger generation to continue the passion
of playing chess and hopefully give honors to Kidapawan City and the people of
Mindanao.