International Master Jan Emmanuel Garcia and two others officially claimed their spots in the Philippine team that will compete in the 2026 FIDE World Chess Olympiad in Uzbekistan this September.
Garcia emerged victorious in the 2026 Philippine National Chess Championship – Battle of the Grandmasters on Thursday after finishing the 13-round competition with 9.5 points. His last match against WIM Ruelle Canino ended in a draw.
Garcia will be joined by runners-up GM Darwin Laylo and IM Michael Concio Jr., who will be making his debut in the Olympiad. Laylo and Concio also drew with their final round opponents and ended up with 9 and 8.5 points, respectively.
Garcia earned P150,000 while Laylo took home P100,000 and Concio got P70,000 pesos.
According to National Chess Federation of the Philippines CEO GM Jayson Gonzales, the rest of the squad will be finalized and announced within the month.
GM Daniel Quizon narrowly missed out on a spot as he only managed a late game draw against IM Ronald Bancod and tallied 8 points.
Meanwhile, Woman National Master Mhage Sebastian completed her comeback story with a final round victory against Woman FIDE Master Allaney Jia Doroy in the Women’s Selection.
Sebastian continued her mastery against Doroy, following up her 71-move round 7 victory with a shorter, 62-move win to claim one of two slots at stake in the national women’s squad for the Olympiad.
WFM Shania Mae Mendoza, who drew with WFM Cherry Ann Mejia in the last round, completed the squad and will be running it back with WGM Janelle Mae Frayna, WIM Ruelle Canino and WIM Jan Jodilyn Fronda.
The group will try to replicate their historic run at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, where they won the Category B gold medal and jumped to an overall 24th place finish from a pre-tournament ranking of 47th.
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