Draw keeps RP joint 22nd

BLED, Slovenia – The Philippines overcame anxious moments before drawing with FYR Macedonia, 2-2, to remain in a tie for 22nd to 26th places after the 12th round of the 35th World Chess Olympiad here Thursday.

International master Mark Paragua (ELO 2476) carried the fight for the 42nd seed Filipinos, beating fellow IM Zvonko Stanojoski (2482) in the 33 moves in their board four encounter.

Paragua at 18 is the youngest member of the six-man team also supported by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

GMs Rogelio Antonio Jr. (2507) halved the point with Vladimir Georgiev (2501) after 22 moves while Buenaventura "Bong" Villamayor (2503) split the point with Nikola Mitkov (2529) after only 18 moves.

But GM Eugene Torre (2523), the heart and soul of the Philippine team in the past 17 Olympiads, succumbed to GM Kiril Georgiev (2658) in 50 moves.

The 2-2 draw enabled the Filipinos to stay in a tie for 22nd to 26th places with Slovakia, Switzerland, Spain and Moldova.

They get another chance to barge into the top 20 when they meet 27th seed Slovakia in the 13th and penultimate round Friday.

Led by GM Sergei Movsesian (2658) and Lubomir Ftacnik (2603), the Slovaks bowed to Israel, 1-3, in the 12th round.

Not as fortunate was the women’s team of Arianne Caoili, Beverly Mendoza and Sherrie Joy Lomibao, which lost to No. 31 Croatia in all three boards.

Caoilix (2309) bowed to Mirjana Medic (2288), Mendoza (2132) lost to Vlasta Macek (2222) and Lomibao (2081) succumbed to Mara Jelica (2189).

The Filipinas plummeted to a tie for 53rd to 55th places with only 17.5 points. They meet Sri Lanka in the next round.

Defending champion Russia kept the lead over Hungary by two points despite giving Garry Kasparov a rest.

Russia edged No. 28 seed Croatia, 2.5-1.5, on the strength of victories by Alexander Morozevich (2707) and Sergey Rublevsky (2664) and draw by Alexander Khalifman (2690).

Hungary defeated Georgia, 2.5-1.5 with Judi Polgar (2685) providing the lone win against Baadur Jobava (2570).

The Russians have 34.5 points against the Hungarians’ 32.5 points.

Armenia demolished Ukraine, 3-1, to move into solo third place with 30 points. Vladimir Akopian (2689) upset FIDE world champion Russian Ponomariov (2743) and Karen Asrian (2597) defeated Vladimir Bakian (2507) to spark Armenia’s triumph.

China toppled England, 2.5-1.5 to join Israel and Georgia in fourth to sixth places with 29.5 points.

Zhang Zhong (2620) led the vaunted Chinese juggernaut humbling Jonathan Speelman (2583) on board three.

Equally impressive were Ye Jingchuan (2667) and Xu Jun (2643), who held GM’s Michael Adams (2745) and Nigel Short (2683) to draws in the first two boards.