RP whips lowly Tunisia, moves up to joint 47th

DRESDEN, Germany – The Philippines scored an expected 3.5-0.5 romp over lowly-rated Tunisia but remained way below at joint 47th in the penultimate round of the Chess Olympiad at the International Congress Center here Sunday.

GMs Wesley So, Jayson Gonzales and John Paul Gomez won their respective matches to anchor the Filipinos’ fifth win against one draw and four losses in the 11-round tournament.

So outduelled Kamel Nijili in 47 moves of the Sicilian Dragon; Gonzales crushed Mehdi Bouaziz in 31 moves of the London system while Gomez whipped Aris Meddeb in 39 moves of the French a day after he became the country’s 10th GM.

GM Bong Villamayor drew with fellow GM in Queen’s Gambit Declined.

The win hiked the RP team’s output to 11, six points behind defending champion Armenia and 2004 winner Ukraine and five points behind Turin Olympiad silver medalist China and Israel under the match point scoring system.

The Filipinos, who finished in 44th place in the last Olympiad in Turin, Italy, share 47th place with 15 other teams.

The Filipinos will go for broke against last-round opponent Argentina.

“We’ll go for the win against Argentina. It will be tough, but we have a good chance with our young players around,” said NCFP (National Chess Federation of the Phils.) chief and former Rep. Butch Pichay.

So, playing only in his second Olympiad, has 6.5 points on four wins and five draws.

The RP ladies, however, lost to Germany-1, 1-3. With 10 points, they also share 47th place in the 114-team women’s division.

The Filipinas will play an all-IM team of Mexico as their final round opponent.

Meanwhile, Pichay has batted for the exclusive fielding of homegrown talents or total ban of foreign players to represent member-federations in the next Olympiad and Asian Team Championships.

“It’s about time that we focus on our homegrown talents, instead of simply getting the services of other nationals to represent the country in the Olympiad and other major international competitions,” said Pichay during the Asian Continental Meeting held as part of the Olympiad.