It’s Philippines vs all-G Croatia in Round 7

BUDAPEST – Filipino Grandmaster Julio Catalino Sadorra will try to carry the Philippines on his shoulders anew as they face dangerous Croatia in the seventh round of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad at the BOK Sports Hall here.

The 38-year-old coach from University of Texas in Dallas will man the top board for the Filipinos, who will also field Daniel Quizon, Paulo Bersamina and John Paul Gomez against the Croatians, an all-GM side that was formerly part of chess power Yugoslavia.

The Filipinos, whose participation here is financed by the Philippine Sports Commission and backed by NCFP chief Butch Pichay, will try to barge back to the top 10 after sputtering to a share of 21st on a stinging 2.5-1.5 setback to the rock-solid former champs Armenians.

Sadorra brandishes an impressive record of 3.5 points in four games, which included shocking wins over super GMs Vladimir Fedoseev in Team Phl’s mammoth 2.5-1.5 win over the Slovenians in the fifth round Sunday and Armenian Haik Martirosyan the next day.

This put Sadorra in the running for an individual medal on top board as he is currently ranked fifth with a tournament performance rating of 2879, behind and elite cast of Indian Dommaraju Gukesh (2998), American Fabiano Caruana (2987), Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2948), and Vietnamese Le Quang Liem (2881).

Sadorra is hoping to become the first Filipino to win a medal in the biennial event since GM Eugene Torre, now the national men’s coach and non-playing captain, snatched a bronze in the 2016 Baku edition.