The Shell National Youth Active Chess Championships (SNYACC), the country’s longest-running talent-search, gears up for its 25th edition with a new breed of talents expected to emerge from a vast pool that has marked every SNYACC staging.
Veering away from its annual opening calendar, this year’s SNYACC will kick off in Batangas on June 17 to 18 for the Southern Luzon elims with a full field of 400 participants expected to clash for top honors in three age-group divisions at SM City Batangas.
The NCR stage, which used to be the first leg of past SNYACCs, will now be the second stop and will be held from July 8 to 9 at SM Mall of Asia’s Music Hall. Cagayan de Oro will be hosting the third leg from August 12 to 13 for the Northern Mindanao qualifying leg at SM City.
Davao will host the fourth elims from Sept.2 to 3 for the Southern Mindanao stage, also at SM City, before the regional elims winds up in Cebu from September 16 to 17 for the Visayas qualifying leg at SM City.
Except for the NCR elims, the top two players in each division in the four other regional qualifying legs – kiddies, juniors and seniors – along with the top female player will advance to the grand finals slated from Oct. 7 to 8, also at SM MOA. Organizers said the top three in the NCR leg, along with the top female player, will gain berths in the national finals for a total of 48 entries.
