MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine men’s team smashed Iceland while its women’s squad walloped South Africa via the same 3-1 scores to barge into the top 10 in their respective divisions after five rounds of the World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey Saturday night.
Grandmasters Oliver Barbosa and Mark Paragua provided the victories on boards two and four for the Pinoys while Woman International Master Catherine Perena and Jedara Docena delivered the wins in the ladies side on boards one and three that gained them a share of fifth and sixth, respectively, with eight match points apiece.
Barbosa won a rook for a piece and a central passed pawn in the middle game and went on to post a 35-move victory over GM Henrik Danielsen in a Bogo-Indian duel. Paragua set up enough space for his f-file passed pawn and translated this to a 48-move win over IM Dagur Arngrimsson in a Slav encounter.
GM Wesley So didn’t force the issue in a rook-and-pawn endgame and halved the point with GM Hannes Steffanson in 31 moves in a super-sharp Sicilian showdown while GM Eugene Torre, with the win already in the bag, settled for a 34-move standoff with GM Throstur Thorallsson in his first game here despite being a pawn up.
The 60-year-old Torre’s game officially made him the player with most number of Olympiad stints with 21.
Perena scuttled WGM Melissa Greef in 46 moves of a Petroff game and Docena humbled WIM Denise Frick in 36 moves of a Double King’s Pawn game.
Frayna and Fronda split the point with WIM Cecile Van der Merwe and Woman FIDE Master Tshepang Tlale, respectively.
The men’s team thus joined No. 2 Ukraine and No. 6 China in fifth spot, two points behind co-leaders No. 1 Russia and No. 3 Armenia and a point off No. 7 Azerbaijan and No. 19 Croatia.
The Armenians, who edged the Nationals 2.5-1.5, in the fourth round, stunned the Ukrainians, 2.5-1.5, on victories by world No. 2 Levon Aronian over GM Vassily Ivanchuk on the top board.
The Filipinas, for their part, are in joint sixth that include No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Ukraine with eight points. No. 2 Russia leads the field with 10 points, a point ahead of No. 1 China, No. 7 Poland, Serbia and Slovakia.
The men’s team, meanwhile, will have its hands full in the next round as it faces No. 10 Bulgaria while the women’s side tackles No. 14 France.