Chessers see hope for gold in rapid event

GUANGZHOU, Guangdong, China – For a sport that requires both mental sharpness and youth, the Filipino chess players will wear the tag of underdogs going into Olympic chess competitions tomorrow at the Guangzhou Chess Institute.

A total of 167 players – 92 men and 75 women – from 25 countries will compete in the men’s and women’s individual and team events, all decided on points over nine rounds.

Chess is the only Asian Games sport where the knockout format does not apply in any of the stages before the gold medal round.     

The Asian Games’ youngest chess team comes from China, whose top four board players are 25 years or younger and are among the top 70 in the world ranking of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) as of November.

The board players likely to man boards one to four in the Asian Games for China are all super grandmasters – World No. 10 Wang Yue (23 years old, Elo 2756), No. 18 Wang Hao (21,Elo 2727), Bu Xiangzhi (25, Elo 2680) and Zhou Sianchao (22, 2669). The alternate is Ni Hua (27 years old, 2633).

Bu, who won the bronze in 2006, became history’s youngest ever grandmaster at 13 in 1999.

China finished fifth while the Philippines was 50th in the World Chess Olympiad in Russia last October. China, which has 27 grandmasters, ranks third in the world among 160 chess playing countries while the Philippines is 32nd. India, with 23 GMs is ranked seventh, while Uzbekistan, with 12, is 29th.

Zhou has the same Elo rating as the country’s top board player Wesley So, 17, ranked 73rd with an Elo rating of 2669.

Although World No. 1 Viswanathan Anand is not playing, India will rely on two super grandmasters in Krishnan Sasikiran (no. 47, 29 years old, Elo 2689) and Harikrishna Pentara (No. 87, 24 years old, Elo 2657) and can pick its third and fourth board players from 24 other GMs.

Harikrishna was India’s youngest grandmaster at 15 in 2001. India won the gold in the Doha Asian Games where three gold medals were at stake – one in the mixed team and two in men’s and women’s rapid chess. Second was China and surprise bronze medal winner was Iran, whose bid was powered by Ehsan Ghaemmaghami, Iran’s first GM who had won a record seven Iran chess championships.

Vietnam has a choice of players from its seven GMS led by World No. 44 Le Quang Lian (19 years, Elo 2689), the 2010 Aeroflot winner. The other entries are Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, who was Vietnam’s youngest-ever GM in 2004 at age 14, and Nguyen Duc Hoa and Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy.

So will make his debut in the Asiad where he’ll play board one. He will be joined by Joey Antonio (48 years old, 2573), John Paul Gomez (2522), Darwin Laylo(30 years old, Elo 2527) and alternate Eugene Torre (59 years old, 2484). Only So is ranked among the top 100 in the world.

Chess will be played under the standard format, which involves teams of four (for men).

Realizing the lack of preparation of its players, the National Chess Federation had decided to withdraw the women’s team.

The teams figure in a nine-round Swiss system competition, with four players per team, to determine the gold, silver and bronze medal winners.

The other category is the rapid chess, where individual players compete for the gold, silver and bronze. The Philippines’ bets are Antonio and So. In the 2006 Asian Games Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan won the gold, with Sasikiran of India getting the silver and Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam the bronze. The Philippines is pinning its golden hopes in the rapid chess event.