Bangladesh, PH draw as Torre loses

TROMSO, Norway—Team Philippines failed to gain ground in both the Open and Women sections of the 41st Chess Olympiad here Sunday.

The Filipinos settled for a 2-2 tie with the Bangladeshis in an all-Grandmaster tussle while their female counterparts bowed to the higher-ranked Mongolians, 1-3, in the eighth round of the biennial meet.

US-based Julio Catalino Sadorra actually put the Filipinos ahead with a 22-move victory over Ziaur Rahman in board 1, but the Bangladeshis equalized following Eugene Torre’s loss to Enamul Hossain in board 3.

Though a pawn up at one stage, John Paul Gomez eventually agreed to a truce with Al-Rakib Abdulla in board 3, leaving the outcome to Jayson Gonzales’ Nimzo Indian (Rubinstein) encounter with Niaz Murshed in board 4.

Gonzales, inactive from tournament play the past three years, yielded a rook for a knight following a fork, but was able to forge the draw through his connected queen and bishop.

Handling black, Sadorra had to fend off Rahman’s strong attack, then trapped his opponent’s queen for the sudden turnaround that enabled the Filipinos to raise their total to 8 match points in the Open section, being led by Asian powerhouse China with 14 points.

Only Jan Jodilyn Fronda was able to score for the PH ladies when she outwitted Woman Fide Master Uuganbayar in a Slav encounter.

Fronda’s teammates and fellow Woman International Masters Chardine Cheradee Camacho (board 1), Catherine Perena (board 4) and Janelle May Frayna (board 2) tumbled in succession against IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul, WIM Bayanmunkh Ankhchimeg and WGM Tuvshintugs Batchimeg, respectively.

The Filipinas got mired at 9 match points and shared 39th to 56th places in the Women’s section being dominated by the Russians with a perfect 16 points followed by the Chinese with 14.

Though way behind in the standings, the Nationals are expected to recover in round 9 starting at 2 p.m. (8 p.m. in Manila) Monday as they are both pitted against lowly rivals.

With Sadorra, who’ll be Super GM Wesley So’s replacement in the country’s elite athlete list, at the helm, the Filipinos will try to overwhelm the Pakistanis fielding IM Mahmood Lodhi in board 1.

Gomez will man board 2 against IM Shahzad Mirza while IM Paulo Bersamina will climb to board 3, in lieu of Torre, who’ll be rested following his first defeat in eight games that saw him score 4.5 points.

The 16-year-old Bersamina, the reigning Asean 20-and-under champion, will be pitted against Ali Syed Amad.  Gonzales, also the  PH skipper and executive director of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines, will play board 4 against Mudasir Iqbal as the Filipinos bid to rise from a share of 74th to 102 places.