Torre forces draw vs Hungary

MANILA, Philippines - Grandmaster Eugene Torre flashed vintage form and hacked out a crucial 81-move victory over GM Ferenc Berkes to save the day for Team Philippines, which salvaged a fighting 2-2 draw with fourth seed Hungary to remain in joint fourth in the seventh round of the Chess Olympiad in Turkey Tuesday night.

The 60-year-old Torre, Asia’s first GM and with most Olympiad stints with 21, took every pawn Berkes sacrificed to gain the initiative and positional advantage in the Zukertort variation of a Queen’s Pawn game and used his experience to outwit his rival in bishop-pawns vs rook-pawn endgame.

Berkes resigned after Torre threatened black’s rook at c7 with a Kd5 move that would have paved the way for white pawn’s promotion on c6.

The upset draw earned the Filipinos a point while keeping them tied with Hungary, No. 3 Armenia, No. 5 USA, No. 7 Azerbaijan, No. 11 England, No. 14 Germany, Uzbekistan and FYROM with 11 points apiece.

Top seed Russia seized the solo lead with a 2.5-1.5 win over Azerbaijan, while No. 2 Ukraine and No. 6 China moved to joint second following 2.5-1.5 victories over Spain and Armenia, respectively.

The Phl will next face England, a 2.5-1.5 winner over Georgia on a victory by former World Challenger GM Nigel Short, whom Torre will likely meet on Board 3.

The Filipinos, who shocked the 10th ranked Bulgarians, 2.5-1.5, in the previous round, appeared headed for a loss after GMs Wesley So and Mark Paragua drew their matches and GM Oliver Barbosa fell to GM Zoltan Almasi after keying the team’s surprise win over Bulgaria with a victory over GM Kiril Georgiev.

But Torre, a 1983 World Candidates quarterfinalist, didn’t disappoint.

A master endgame tactician, Torre, with a 2469 rating against Berkes’ 2685, parried each of every Berkes’ attack, including a forced exchange of queens while giving up his rooks to hold off a two-pawn siege in the queenside.

Torre then forced another exchange, this time his knight and his h6 passed pawn for Berkes’ bishop.

After the nerve-wracking exchanges, Torre wound up with three pawns at center and a bishop against Berkes’ lone pawn and a rook.

Berkes tried to delay the inevitable by hanging on for several moves before giving up on the 81st with no way to stop Torre’s pawn onslaught.

Earlier, So gave up his queen for two rooks to launch his attack but GM Peter Leko found a way to force a 34-move draw in the Geller Variation of the Ruy Lopez via repetition of moves while Paragua split point with GM Csaba Balogh in 46 moves of the Tal Variation of the Caro-Kann.

Barbosa, meanwhile, found his knights no match to Almasi’s pair of bishops and absorbed a 53-move defeat in their Advance Variation of another Caro-Kann encounter.

Meanwhile, the Phl women’s team bounced back with a 3-1 rout of Portugal, 3-1, on victories by Woman’s FIDE Master Ralp Ylem Jose and Jedara Docena on boards two and three, respectively.

Woman International Master Catherine Perena and Janelle Mae Frayna drew with WIM Catarina Leite and Maria Oliveira on boards one and three, respectively.

The win put the Filipinas in joint 11th with 10 points. They play the fifth seeded England in the eighth round.