ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Nakamura to come to PH for inaugural WR Bughouse Championship

Nakamura to come to PH for inaugural WR Bughouse Championship

Published May 25, 2026 01:09 pm

At A Glance

  • Nakamura, who is currently holding on to No. 2 in the live rankings with a rating of 2792 and behind only former world champion Magnus Carlsen's 2841.4, will partner with organizing WR Chess founder Wadim Rosenstein, who has shelled out the total money pot of $100,000, or a whopping P6.1 million.
Hikaru Nakamura. (File Photo/ FIDE)
Hikaru Nakamura. (File Photo/ FIDE)
American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, the world’s second highest rated chess player, is coming to the Philippines as he is set to participate in the inaugural WR Bughouse Championship set June 1 and 2 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taguig.
Nakamura, who is currently holding on to No. 2 in the live rankings with a rating of 2792 and behind only former world champion Magnus Carlsen’s 2841.4, will partner with organizing WR Chess founder Wadim Rosenstein, who has shelled out the total money pot of $100,000, or a whopping P6.1 million.
The champion pair of the two-day event, which is being co-organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), will pocket $50,000 (around P3 million) plus a trophy and gold medals.
The runner up and the third placer will take home $20,000 and $10,000, respectively, while the fourth will pocket $6,000, fifth to eighth $2,000 each, ninth to 20th $500 apiece.
At press time, at least 53 teams or 106 players have made the cut, including Filipino pairs of GM Daniel Quizon and IM Eric Labog, GM Darwin Laylo and FM David Elorta, IMs Jem Garcia and Pau Bersamina, and WGM Janelle Mae Frayna and WIM Ruelle Canino.
Another American, 23-year-old GM Awonder Liang, is also seeing action.
Bughouse, or transfer chess, has the same chess moves except that the pieces captured will go directly to his or her teammate, who will then use it on the next move with each player given five minutes apiece without increments.
The first to win, whether it’s via checkmate, resignation or time forfeiture, will win the duel.
No automatic checkmate is allowed for the captured pieces while the event also implements a unique pawn promotion rule where the promoted piece will come from what’s available on the opponent’s pieces.
The event will have a 12-round elimination format with the top eight fighting it out in a knockout format until one team remains that will be crowned as champion.

Related Tags

Hikaru Nakamura WR Bughouse Championship NCFP PSC POC
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.