THERE IS a pair of chess prodigies emerging from the North. Five-year-old Jodiel Chloe Banawa and nine-year-old Empress Anika Caole blew away their respective classes to snare three gold medals each in the National Age Group Chess Championships at the SMX Convention Center in Olongapo over the weekend. An Alicia, Isabela native, Ms. Banawa dominated […]

JODIEL CHLOE BANAWA, a five-year-old woodpusher from Alicia, Isabela, asked her father Joel, an International Master, to teach her chess a year ago out of curiosity. Exactly one year after learning the royal game, she is now a national champion. It happened on Saturday night after Ms. Banawa bested older opponents and topped the Under-8 […]