Chess Olympiad: PH women forge draw; men falter

TROMSO, Norway—Woman International Master Jan Jodilyn Fronda squeezed out a win over Woman Grandmaster Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska in Round 3 of the 41st Chess Olympiad as the Philippines held touted Poland to a 2-2 standoff and reached its highest placing ever in the Women’s division.

Aggressively handling black, the 20-year-old Fronda had two unstoppable connected middle pawns when Horowska surrendered their Hyper Accelerated Dragon encounter after 63 moves, pushing the Filipinos to 13th place among 134 teams.

The Filipinos raised their match points total to five points and game points to 9.5 points.

Fronda, a sports science senior at De La Salle University, notched her third straight win.

In her 45th move, Fronda, also a campaigner in the 2012 Istanbul Olympiad, gave up a rook for a bishop and a pawn to open up the march of her pawns.

WIMs Chardine Cheradee Camacho and Janelle May Frayna also pitched in with draws in the top two boards.

Camacho, a computer science senior at University of Texas, agreed to a truce with GM Monika Socko after 37 moves of a French Defense while Frayna, a Psychology junior at Far Eastern U, split the point with WGM Jolanta Zawadzka in their Modern Reti encounter.

WIM Catherine Perena, however, got waylaid by WGM Marta Bartel in a Dutch tussle.

While the Filipinos, ranked 43rd here, made great strides, their male counterparts suffered a setback against powerhouse Ukrainians, 1-3.

US-based Grandmaster Julio Catalino Sadorra and GM Eugene Torre were able to hold fort on boards 1 and 3, but GM John Paul Gomez and International Master Paulo Bersamina yielded boards 2 and 4, respectively.

Belying his 2590 Elo rating, Sadorra ably defended with the Queen’s Gambit Declined (Ragozin variation) and forced Super GM Vassily Ivanchuk (Elo 2744) to split the point after 55 moves.

Still razor-sharp at 62, Torre (Elo 2438) drew with Super GM Anton Korolov (2680) and posted 2.0 points in three matches.

Gomez (2526) bowed to Super GM Ruslan Ponomariov (2717) for his second straight defeat while Bersamina (2363) wilted against Super GM Alexander Moisenkoo (2707) after eking out a win in Round 2.

The Filipino men, rated only 52nd among 174 teams, remained at 3.0 points and will battle Finland on Tuesday.