P1 Million Award for Philippines’ Newest Grandmaster Daniel Quizon

The Philippines has a new chess grandmaster after 13 years! Daniel Quizon clinched the coveted GM title at 20 years old after beating grandmaster Igor Efimov of Monaco and breaching the 2500-rating plateau during the fourth round of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary on 14 September 2024.
The chess prodigy, who hails from Cavite, became the country’s 17th grandmaster with his feat. The Philippines last earned a GM in the sport in 2011 with Oliver Barbosa and Richard Bitoon. In 2017, Janelle Mae Frayna became the country’s first and only woman grandmaster.

Quizon will receive P1 million from Dasmarinas Mayor Jenny Barzaga through the initiative of the late Dasmarinas Congressman Pidi Barzaga.

Quizon managed to thrive as an elite player in various chess tournaments at a young age.

In August 2018, he earned the International Master (IM) title after emerging victorious at the Eastern Asian Juniors Open Championships in Gangneung, South Korea with 7.5 points from nine rounds. The following year, he qualified for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, where he fell short of claiming a spot on the podium.

Quizon was recognized by the San Miguel Corporation-Philippine Sportswriters Association as the MILO Junior Male Athlete of the Year in 2019 alongside award-winning tennis player Alex Eala.

The chess prodigy qualified for the Chess World Cup in 2021. He ended his campaign in the first round after losing to Russian-Canadian GM Evgeny Bareev.

Driven by his dream to clinch the grandmaster title, Quizon made it a point to hone his skills and complete the three required GM norms—a high-level of performance in chess tournaments.

Quizon secured Grandmaster norms by winning gold in the Eastern Asia Juniors Chess Championship on December 2023 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. He then won first place in the Hanoi GM tournament, March 2024 in Vietnam. Then he earned his final norm by sharing first place in the strong Abu Dhabi Masters in August 2024 in the United Arab Emirates.

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