The International Chess Federation (FIDE) conferred Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino as Honorary Member during its congress concurrent with the 44th Chess Olympiad recently in Chennai, India.
Tolentino, president of both the Philippine Olympic Committee and PhilCycling, was accorded the FIDE recgnition for his “special contribution to the world of chess.”
It is the highest honor given by FIDE General Assembly, one of the largest international sports organizations with 195 member nations.
“It’s an honor to be conferred such award from the FIDE, but this honor is not for me personally, but for Philippine chess, Philippine sports and the entire country in general,” Tolentino said. “It was also an honor to have served the FIDE, one of the international federations with the most number of member countries.”
Tolentino served as FIDE general secretary during his term as president of the FIDE Southeast Asian Zone. He was a long serving general secretary of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines having yielded the post “to give way to young blood” during the national sports association’s recent elections.
FIDE recognized his service and accomplishment as head of the POC as well his presidency of the SEA Games Federation when the country hosted the games’ 30th edition in 2019.
Tolentino is a three-term congressman from the Eighth District of Cavite and is currently the mayor of Tagaytay City. He was the Grand Master of the Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines in 2017.
