Arjay Co places among Top 10 in two categories of nat’l chess championships

Representing Ateneo de Manila Grade School, Arjay Co (6-Berchmans) emerged as 7th runner-up and 8th runner-up in the Blitz and Standard categories, respectively, of the recently concluded National Youth and Schools Chess Championships (NYSCC) 2022 grand finals.

The games were played using a round robin format and saw Arjay battling against master-caliber players in his age group, the U11 Open Category. He played 11 grueling games of standard and blitz games, each game having a time control of 60 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds after each standard game, and five minutes plus an increment of three seconds after each blitz game.

The tournament gathered more than 100 grand finalists representing schools from different parts of the country who played in age groups ranging from U9 to U17. The NYSCC grand finals were held in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte from September 16 to 23, 2022. The tournament was organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and sanctioned by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

Arjay will now represent the Philippines- together with other national athletes from the U11 Age Group- in the upcoming Asian Juniors Chess Championship to be held in November 2022. He has also qualified for the Batang Pinoy Chess Tournament to be held in December 2022.

Arjay is a member of the AGS Chess Varsity Team and coached by Joan Datu.