RP draws Colombia on 4 boards

The Philippines’ men’s squad failed to re-assert its "mastery" over Colombia, settling for a 2-2 standoff and falling farther down the standings even as its women counterparts got ambushed by a talented Kazakhstan side in the fourth round of the World Chess Olympiad at the Olympic Village in Turin, Italy Wednesday.

Draws on all four boards marred the Filipinos’ campaign against a squad ranked 27 rungs lower than them as GMs Mark Paragua, Eugene Torre and Joey Antonio failed to score victories over IMs Jaime Cuartas and Forero Escobar and FM Sergio Barrientos, respectively. Wesley So, the 12-year-old prodigy, also held FM Rafael Mendoza to a draw as the 35th-ranked Philippines dropped from joint 38th to a share of 45th heading into its fifth round match with Lithuania, seeded No. 39 in a field of 146.

That’s too far from SEA Games champion and Asian Games rival Vietnam, ranked 37th here but which continued to make waves as it surged to joint 13th with 11 points after beating Moldova, 2.5-1.5.

After back-to-back wins, the RP ladies succumbed to the Kazakhs, 0.5-2.5, with unranked Catherine Perena salvaging a draw against WIM Sofya Zigangirova. WFM Sheerie Joy Lomibao bowed to WIM Dana Aketayeva while WIM Beverly Mendoza lost to untitled Gulmira Dauletova.

The loss dropped the women’s team from 33rd to a share of 47th with six points. The 60th-ranked Filipinas, however, hope to bounce back with a victory over Italy-B, listed No. 70, on a team led by Perena, Sherily Cua and Beverly Mendoza.

Paragua, boasting of a 2617 rating, Torre and Antonio will again see action against Lithuania with unranked Darwin Laylo joining the top Filipino GMs in their bid to rebound from that draw against Colombia.

Russia and Armenia continued to hold sway with 13.5 points with the former beating China, 3-1, and the latter blanking Norway, 4-0, in the men’s side.

The Netherlands is in solo third with 13 points while Uzbekistan pooled 12.5 points for fourth.

The Russians also surged to the solo lead in women’s play, posting 11.5 points after four rounds, including a 3-0 rout of Lithuania.

Ukraine is in second with 10 points while the United States, Bulgaria and China all tote 9.5 points for third.