August 03 1957
The Toronto Star, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, August 03, 1957
For Chess Chance
Travel 13,000 Miles
By RAY KRZNARIC
When Rodolpho Cardoso and Florencio Compomanes arrived at Malton Thursday they had completed a two-week, 13,000-mile journey from the Philippines to compete in the world junior chess championships which began in Toronto today.
Only Cardoso is going to play in the tournament with Compomanes acting as his second. Compomanes will also report the tournament proceedings to the Manila Chronicle.
“It was tough getting $3,000 necessary for our traveling expenses,” Compomanes, Philippines' No. 1 chess player said. “We did most of the soliciting ourselves as my newspaper exhausted its funds by financing our Olympic team last year. But we made it.”
The 19-year-old Cardoso said he even abandoned the idea of continuing his studies because of this tournament. “This June I was intending to enroll at the faculty of journalism in Manila,” he said, “but the tournament date clashed with our first semester in June. So I chose chess instead.”
Campomanes, unlike Cardoso has been to Northing in Cleveland, but this was his first trip to Canada. He was quite surprised when told that no big company or the government was sponsoring America before, while studying the tournament. “I can't see how you can raise enough money just by collections,” he said. Later on when the guests read how the city of Toronto offered $150 toward the tourney's expenses they just chuckled.
Even before the Philippines arrived Ibrahim Munir Bahgat, Egypt's representative in the tournament caused chairman Bernard Freedman a small headache by materializing in Freedman's office early Monday morning. He was expected on Thursday. “I guess I miscalculated the length of the trip” said the embarrassed Egyptian currently studying pharmacy at the University of Texas.
Sufficiently accustomed to his new surroundings Bahgat confessed he didn't have much competition in chess during the past two years. “Somehow down south we never managed to attract any bigger chess names,” he remarked. Bahgat said there is rumor that he is a better weight-lifter than chess player. He is reported to have lifted 250 pounds in the middleweight press division. Ontario heavyweight record is 245 pounds.
One of the favorites in the tournament, (to win it again) William Lombardy, representing the U.S., reached Toronto, Thursday. Lombardy was optimistic about the upcoming junior meet. “I've heard that the Russian boy (Vladimir Salimanov) isn't nearly as good as Boris Spassky, who won the title at Antwerp two years ago,” the 18-year-old New Yorker said.
Canada will be the only nation with two representatives in the tourney, a customary privilege for the host country. They are Francois Jobin, 19, of Quebec City, and Peter Bates, 18, of 194 Davenport Rd., Toronto.
For Bates, it will be his first major tournament. Jobin, the Dominion junior title-holder, played last year in the first Canadian Open at Montreal.
The tournament opened at 11:30 a.m. at the Central YMCA auditorium. Sunday playing time will be 3 p.m. and week days 6 p.m.
