PH makes phenomenal wins

Philippines clobbered England; Torre stands...London bridge down

Team Standings after Round 8: (Match Points Scoring System)
15 points—Russian Federation
13 points—China, Armenia, USA, Germany, Philippines

Round 9 parings:
Board 1 United States of America vs Russian Federation
Board 2 Philippines vs China
Board 3 Armenia vs Germany

MANILA—For the first time since the Philippines started joining the Chess Olympiad in 1956, it had a splendid chance to be among the top 3 going into the last three rounds.

This after the gritty Philippine men’s team crushed 11th seed England, 3-1, in the 40th World Chess Olympiad.

Asia’s First Grandmaster Eugene Torre and Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa toppled their respective rivals to stay in course for the coveted gold medal in the 8th round Thursday morning (Manila Time) at the WOW Convention Center in Istanbul, Turkey.

The brand new grandfather Torre and a certified senior citizen from Iloilo City, appearing in a record 21st Olympiad, deftly handled the black pieces in their Nimzo-Indian encounter and forced Short to resign after trapping the latter’s bishop on the 41st move. Short, ranked 49th in the world among active players with Elo 2698, is the same player who challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess Championship in 1993.

His heroics in the previous round also allowed the 35th seed Philippines to salvage a 2-2 draw opposite fourth seed Hungary.

The Taytay, Rizal native Barbosa, on the other hand, the hero in the sixth round, rebounded from a loss in the seventh round with a marathon 102-move victory over GM Gawain Jones.

Grandmasters Wesley So and Mark Paragua also did their share by holding their opponents to a standoff.

So, the country’s top player, held his ground against GM Michael Adams and forced a draw after 51 moves of Caro-Kann while Paragua split the point with GM Nicholas Pert after 37 moves of Queen’s Pawn Game.

With its 13th match point, the Philippines shared a piece of second place with USA, China, Germany and fourth round tormentor Armenia. The Russian Federation remained on top with 15 match points.

GM Sergey Karjakin took the scalp of GM Andrei Volokitin to set the tone for the Russian Federation a narrow’s 2.5-1.5 win against defending champion Ukraine.

In other results, Armenia routed Uzbekistan, 3-1, USA dealt FYROM, 3-1, Germany edged Hungary, 2.5-1.5, and China drew with Azerbaijan, 2-2.

But while the men’s team continued to flourish in its drive to improve on its worst 50th place finish two years ago in Khanty, Mansiyk, Russia, the ladies squad faltered, absorbing a 0.5-3.5, defeat at the hands of the 5th seeded US.

Woman National Master Janelle Mae Frayna split the point with IM Rusudan Goletiano on board 3 to prevent a shut-out loss for the Pinay woodpushers.

The defeat dropped the Phl ladies from top 10 to joint 23rd with ten points.

In the ninth round, the men’s team will meet China while the women’s team goes up against 10th seed Romania, who blasted 8th seed Armenia, 3-1. (PR)