FILIPINOS DRAWN
RP MEN SETTLE FOR DRAW WITH COLOMBIA,
WOMEN YIELD TO KAZAKHSTAN

The men’s team found another roadblock it couldn’t hurdle and the luck of the women’s team came to a halt in the fourth round of the 37th Chess Olympiad held in Turin, Italy.
       The Philippines, seeded 35th in the men’s division, were held to a 2-2 draw by 62nd-ranked Colombia. Playing white, grandmaster (GM) Eugene Torre and 12-year-old prodigy Wesley So were forced to stalemates, as were GMs Mark Paragua and Joey Antonio, who played black.
       Paragua, using a the Najdorf variation of a Sicilian Defense, drew after 52 moves with International Master (IM) Alexander Cuartas.
       The match on Board Two between Torre and IM Alder Escobar finished deadlocked after 32 moves of a Slav defense, the Antonio-Sergio Barrientos match on Board Three was drawn also in 32 moves of a French Defense (Winawer variation) and the So-Rafael Mendoza game on Board Three, in 28 moves of a Bishop Opening.
       The draw gave the RP men’s team 9.5 points that put them in a share of 45th to 55th places, a bracket that included Lithuania, the Filipinos’ fifth-round opponent.
       Lithuania defeated Luxembourg, 3-1, in the fourth round.
       Earlier in the second round, the match between the Philippines and Luxembourg ended in a draw.
       “Colombia is a deep team,” assistant coach Jayson Gonzales said. “Despite being seeded lower, they’ve improved a lot and they weren’t to be taken for granted.”
       Gonzales was part of the team that beat Colombia, 2.5-1.5, in the last Olympiad in 2004.
       The women’s team, meanwhile, ran into a brick wall in Kazakhstan in the fourth round. Women’s Fide Master Sherrie Joy Lomibao and Women’s International Master Beverly Mendoza dropped their respective matches, while Catherine Pereña, a silver medalist in the last Southeast Asian Games, salvaged a draw.
       With the 2.5-0.5 loss, the women’s team, seeded 60th in the tournament, dropped in a tie with 14 other countries from 47th to 60th places. The ladies next face No.70-ranked Italy B.
       In other matches, top seed Russia defeated No. 12 China, 3-1, while Armenia shut out No. 24 Norway, 4-0. Their victories gave the former Russian republics joint leadership in the men’s division with 13.5 points each.
       Occupying solo third place is the Netherlands (13.0), which beat No. 22 Greece.
       In the women’s side, the Russians also continued to flash their dominance, taking care of No. 13 Lithuania, 3-0, and accumulating 11.5 points total. Ukraine’s 10.0 points ranks second.