Olympiad: RP forges 4-0 rout of Turkmenistan
Standings after nine rounds: 16 points—Ukraine; 15—Russia-1, France; 14—Israel, China, United States; 13—Georgia, Poland, Spain, Armenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Serbia, Italy; 12—Russia-2, Greece, Cuba, England, Russia-3, Netherlands, Chile, Colombia, Estonia, Egypt; 11—Croatia, Vietnam, Norway, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, India, Brazil, Slovenia, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Russia-4, Montenegro, Switzerland, Sweden, Kyrgyzstan, Argentina, Denmark, Canada, Qatar. KHANTY-MANSIYSK, RUSSIA—The Philippines fashioned out a vengeful 4-0 rout of former Russian republic Turkmenistan in the crucial ninth round of the 39th World Chess Olympiad Thursday. GM Wesley So, a day after holding former world champion GM Veselin Topalov to a draw, spearheaded the RP charge with the black pieces, tripping GM Mesgen Amanov in 48 moves of the Gruenfeld. GMs Darwin Laylo and Eugene Torre and IM Richard Bitoon also swept their respective matches to cap the 37th-seeded Filipinos’ second shutout victory since a 4-0 win over Korea in the first round. Laylo trounced IM Meylis Annaberdiev (ELO 2465) in 52 moves of English opening to level his record to 3-1-3 win-draw-loss for 3.5 points. Torre whipped FM Kasat Atabayev (ELO 2318) in 58 moves of the Owen’s defense and raised his personal record to 89 wins, 14 draws and 39 losses in a record 243 games in 20 Olympiad appearances spanning 40 years from 1970 to 2010. The 58-year-old Torre also broke a tie with GM Miguel Najdorf of Argentina for second most points in Olympiad history. The Filipino now has 146 points, one point ahead of Najdorf (145 points) for second all-time but way behind GM Lajos Portisch (176.5 points) of Hungary. Bitoon ripped FM Yusup Atabayev (ELO 2313) in 41 moves of the English to remain as the Filipinos’ top scorer with 5.5 points on four wins, three draws and one loss in eight games. Overall, the Filipinos are now tied for 27th to 47th places with 11 points on five wins, one draw and three losses.
