Checkmate Manila: pawns, paws and a grand chess game in the Philippine capital

At Rizal Park, a Hong Kong journalist takes on a local chess legend in a venue that’s hosted some of the world’s best players and is also home to stray cats

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The author and Siong playing chess in Manila’s Rizal Park. Photo: SCMP/Ben O'Rourke

Published: 4:00pm, 21 Apr 2019Updated: 4:26pm, 21 Apr 2019

It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon in Manila’s Rizal Park and 62-year-old Johnny Siong is crooning his heart out to Whitney Houston’s Saving All My Love For You.

He’s doing it partly for amusement and partly to psyche me out – we’re three games in to our four-game, winner-take-all chess tournament and what began as a quiet mano a mano match has attracted an eager crowd of spectators.

Young and old, big and small, they are all craning their necks to see if the local legend can defeat the fast-moving American-Hongkonger and take the 400 pesos (US$8) that’s at stake.

At 58 hectares, Rizal Park is one of the largest urban parks in Asia and among the most historic sites in the Philippines. It was named after national hero Jose Rizal, who was executed here in 1896. Today, a massive monument containing his remains is a prominent feature of the popular locale.

The park has also been the site of a vast array of historic and infamous events, including the deadly hostage-taking of a busload of Hong Kong tourists in 2010, and a mass by Pope Francis in 2015 that was attended by 6 million people – the largest such gathering in history.

Tens of thousands of the faithful filling up Rizal Park before the mass by Pope Francis in January 18, 2015. Photo: AP

By several accounts, as well as being a patriot Rizal was also a well-known chess player. And in one small area of the park, near an open-air auditorium, a planetarium and a Japanese garden, is a spot known as Chess Plaza.