FIDE confers on Tolentino highest award

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THE International Chess Federation (FIDE) made Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino an Honorary Member during its congress during the 44th Chess Olympiad recently in Chennai, India.

Tolentino, president of the Philippine Olympic Committee and PhilCycling, was accorded the FIDE recognition for his “special contribution to the world of chess.”

It is the highest honor given by the FIDE General Assembly, one of the largest international sports organizations with 195 member nations.

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“It’s an honor to be conferred such an award from 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 highest 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 but yielded the post “to give way to young blood” during the national sports association’s recent elections.

FIDE recognized his service and accomplishments 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.

The other FIDE awardees are Prof. Kurt Jungwirth of Austria, European Chess Union President from 1990 to 1998; Jorge Vega of Mexico, American Confederation president from 2002 to 2022; and Grandmasters Vlastimil Hort of Germany and Slim Bouaziz of Tunisia.

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