Dimakiling settles for silver as chessers falters

TAGAYTAY — The RP chess squad, hyped to dominate the sport in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games, came up short for its third straight crack at the gold medal as FIDE Master Oliver Dimakiling bowed to Viet ace Nguyen Anh Dung in the finals of the blitz event at the Tagaytay Convention Center here yesterday.

Dimakiling failed to keep the momentum of his stirring victory over rapid champion GM Nguyen Ngoc Truongson of Vietnam in the semis and a romp over Anh Dung in the first of their four-game final duel, losing the second and the fourth and eventually the gold medal, 1-5.2.5.

Earlier, GM Joey Antonio also went up, 1.5-0.5, over Anh Dung after two rounds of their semis duel, but the top Filipino bet dropped the third game and blundered his way in the fourth and settled for bronze.

Catherine Pereña also took the bronze medal in the women’s side of blitz, blowing a 2-0 lead in the early going of her semis duel with Nguyen Quyn Anh and yielding the finals spot to the Vietnamese bet. Quyn Anh went on to bag the gold with a victory over Indon Evi Lindiawati.

Thus, the Philippines, eyeing no less than three gold medals, could only show two silver medals and three bronzes after the rapid and blitz with four more gold medals up for grabs in the individual and team events of standard chess.

Not even the presence of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and chess chief Go Teng Kok could inspire the Filipino chessers to beat their Vietnamese rivals, who have so far swept the first four golds offered in the sport to underscore their domination of the hosts.

Things likewise looked bleak for the RP team campaign in standard chess.

GM Eugenio Torre lost to Truongson in a duel of the leaders in the fifth round of standard chess, dropping two notches with 3.5 points. Truongson, gunning for another individual gold medal, surged ahead with 4.5 points with four rounds left in the event.

Antonio defeated Dimakiling to catch Torre at No. 2 while IM Ronald Dableo also reeled back with 3 points after halving the point with FM Weiming Goh of Singapore.

The RP chessers also dropped in the team event with 14. 5 points, enabling erstwhile co-leader Vietnam to seize the solo lead with 15.5 points. Malaysia is in third with 14 followed by Indonesia (12.5), Singapore (10.5), Myanmar (8) in that order.

WIM Beverly Mendoza also lost the solo lead in women’s standard as she bowed to WFM Hue Luong Minh of Vietnam, who surged ahead with 4 points. Mendoza slid to second with 3.5 points, the same output put in by Shercila Cua, who drew with Khye Theng Wan of Malaysia.

Enerose Magno split the point with WIM Hoang Thi Bao Tram of Vietnam to hike her total to 3 while Aices Salvador trounced Suzanna Sia Xin-Yun of Singapore to post her 2.5 point in a tie with WIM Sheerie Joy Lomibao, who drew with WIM Upi Darmayana Tamin of Indonesia.