Climbing to the Top

As we come out with this issue, the Filipino American chess grandmaster Wesley So is competing in the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri. As our contributor Eliseo Tumbaga, who wrote the chess master's profile, "A Chess World Champ in the Making," alerts us: "This will be the third-highest rated tournament of all time with eight of the world's top ten playing, including the world champion." Wesley is ranked #7 in the world and #3 in the U.S. Let's root for this 21-year-old chess genius who is considered the best Filipino chess player of all time.

No one can accuse retired anesthesiologist Dr. Sonny Siasoco of not being adventurous. After scaling Mt. Pinatubo (Read: Positively Pinatubo), he turned to Mount Arayat, Pampanga's famously subversive mountain (it was the center of revolutionary activity during the Hukbalahap movement). Climbing mountains is never easy, but if you're a senior citizen it's doubly challenging. Read Dr. Siasoco's lively account of his adventure in "Mt. Arayat Is a Pain in the Ascent."

In Palo, Leyte, meanwhile, where the trauma of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda remains a reality, a group of women and a few men organized by the NGO, WeDpro, is treated to a psychological healing workshop by famous therapist, Dr. Margarita Holmes. Aida F. Santos, who heads WeDpro writes about the residents' eye-opening exposure to mental health issues and the interesting way they responded.

We go vegetarian in The Happy Home Cook this week, with Richgail Enriquez's Vegan Mechado. And of course, we have another delicious recipe from Goldilocks: Banana Loaf Cake.

In Video of the Week, we have an excerpt from the 2009 BBC travel documentary “Explore: Manila to Mindanao,” in which British reporter Simon Reeve interviewed Imelda Marcos and asked the source of the Marcos fortune.

Finally, we send our condolences to the family, friends and readers of Bert Eljera, a Positively Filipino contributor and correspondent for Inquirer.net. Bert passed away on Sunday, August 17 in Las Vegas. He had been waiting and hoping for a kidney transplant. Unfortunately, his tenacious struggle for life didn’t succeed. We will miss our colleague and friend.