RP nears top 20 after draw

KHANTY-MANSIYSK, Russia— Grandmaster Wesley So tripped GM Diego Flores as the Philippines battled to a 2-2 draw with Argentina and kept itself on track for a top-20 finish in the 39th World Chess Olympiad here Friday.   So was aggressive with the black pieces and capitalized on errors by the lower-rated Argentinian champion (Elo 2615) to carve out a morale-boosting win in 49 moves of the Benoni.   So gave up a knight for three pawns on the 26th move and wisely kept the 26-year-old Flores on the edge of his seat with brilliant rook and knight moves.   Argentina, however, struck back with a victory by GM Fernando Peralta over GM Eugene Torre by time forfeit in 40 moves of the Double Queen’s Pawn opening.   The two other matches—GM John Paul Gomez against GM Ruben FelGaer and IM Richard Bitoon against GM Pablo Lafuente—ended in draws.   Gomez salvaged a draw with  the higher-rated Felgaer (Elo 2597) in 57 moves of the French defense despite being two pawns down, while Bitoon split the point with Lafuente (Elo 2565) in 64 moves of the English in almost identical position.   The draw was enough to put the 37th seeds in a tie for 31st to 44th places with 12 points on five wins, two draws and three losses.   After the Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak, the Filipinos are in  31st place, or six notches higher than their  starting rank of 37th place.     After the final rest day on Saturday, the Filipinos look for a better finish than their 46th–place showing during the Dresden Olympiad two years ago. They take on No. 48 seed Estonia.   In the women’s division, the Philippines absorbed a heart-breaking 1.5-2.5 defeat to Southeast Asian rival Indonesia.   The decisive point was lost when  WFM Catherine Perena dropped her  board two match to Vina Lestari.   Cheradee Chardina Camacho drew with WGM Irine Kharisma Sukandar as did Rulp Ylem Jose against Citra Dewi and Jedara Docena against Monica Sihite.