Well-rounded PH team flies to Olympiad

A SEASONED, well-rounded Philippine team out to stop its skid in the Chess Olympiad will be leaving tonight to compete in the 40th edition of the biennial event in Istanbul, Turkey.

Headed by Asia’s first Grandmaster Eugene Torre, who will be making a record 21st appearance in the Olympiad, the men’s team is predicted to crash the top 20 of the Open section, where it placed a worst-ever 50th in the 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, edition.

Joining the 60-year-old Torre in the flight to Singapore and the connecting flight to Istanbul are GMs Mark Paragua, winner of the 5th Battle of GMs, Oliver Barbosa, and International Master Oliver Dimakiling.

GM Wesley So, the country’s top player, is in the United States and will be hooking up with the team in the host city, which was named the European Capital of Culture although one-third of its 13.5 million population geographically lives in Asia.

The distaff side is composed of Woman International Master Catherine Perena, Woman Fide Master Rulp Ylem Jose, and Woman National Masters Janelle Mae Frayna, Jedara Docena and Jan Jodilyn Fronda.

Accompanying the players are GM Jayson Gonzales, the National Chess Federation of the Philippines executive director who’ll also serve as coach of the Nationals in the Olympiad which has lured a record 162 countries.

NCFP president Prospero “Butch” Pichay, who expects a good performance from the men’s team, will follow on Sept. 5.

Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, also the NCFP secretarygeneral, will arrive earlier on Sept. 2.

Pichay and Tolentino are slated to attend the 83rd Fide Congress coinciding with the 11-round event lasting up to Sept. 9.

The 18-year-old So, who holds an Elo rating of 2652, is in-form having won the Toronto International and Quebec Open chess championships last month.

Though Barbosa’s performance has dipped after winning both the 4th Odisha Open and the 10th Parsvnath International Open in India, the former University of the Philippines mainstay is expected to man board 2 behind So in his initial Olympic foray.

Torre, now a grandfather, will play board 3 while Paragua will try to score the points in board 4 of the Open section featuring top-seeded  Russia and defending champion Ukraine.

Dimakiling will be the fifth player of the men’s team also bidding to improve on its 44th place finish in the 2006 Turin  Olympiad and its 46th place windup in the 2008 Dresden, Germany, edition.

The women’s squad actually fared better than their male counterparts in Khanthy-Mansiysk, landing 44th, but the absence of top-ranked Chardine Cheradee Camacho and Christy Lamiel Bernales, both students, may hamper their campaign to do better.