PH bid foiled by Vietnam in final round

The Philippine bid for a dream finish crashed Friday night as the men’s team dropped a 3-1 decision to regional powerhouse Vietnam in the last round of the 43rd World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia.

International Master Jan Emmanuel Garcia bested Grandmaster Tran Tuan Minh on board three but GMs Julio Catalino Sadorra and John Paul Gomez and IM Haridas Pascua fell to GMs Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and IM Nguyen Anh Koi, respectively.

When the tiebreak was applied, the men’s team wound up 37th overall after flirting with the idea of bettering its eighth-place finish in 1988, the country’s finest performance in the event. Still, it was an upgraded finish from 54th in the previous Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan, two years back.

It was a sad ending for the men’s team, which made an amazing comeback as it leapt from outside the top 100 to 13th place on the strength of five straight victories.

The women’s team, on the other hand, capped its stint with a 3-1 loss to Australia.

After zooming to as high as a share of 13th spot, the Filipino women tumbled to 67th overall with 11 points, way below its 34th-place finish in Baku.

China swept both the men’s and women’s crowns. The Chinese knocked off Baku Olympiad champions United States.