Chess Olympiad: Lady woodpushers draw with Polish, enter Top 15

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine women's team continued to make heads turn as it pulled off a shock 2-2 draw with eighth seed Poland to barge into the top 15 even as the men's squad fell to second seed Ukraine, 3-1, in the third round of the 41st World Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway Monday night.

Jan Jodilyn Fronda went an exchange down early but used her two-pawn battering ram at the center to launch her attack and eventually slaying Women Grandmaster Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska in 63 moves of their super-sharp Sicilian encounter on third board to save the day for the Filipinas.

Janelle Mae Frayna engaged WGM Jolanta Zowadska to a fighting 66-move standoff of an English Opening on board two in a game that saw her built a positional advantage and an attack, lost it with a defensive Queen move and then hung on to the draw despite going into their rook-and-pawn ending a pawn down.

Earlier, Cheradine Camacho gave up the exchange early but found a way to expose a weak kingside by Monica Socko, who owns a men's GM title, to eke out a Perpetual draw that lasted 37 moves of a French Defense on Board One.

Catherine Perena was the lone Phl casualty as she fell to WGM Marta Bartel in 68 moves fo their Dutch duel on fourth board.

The surprise draw sent the Phl up in the 10-team logjam for 15th spot with five match points alongside fourth round foe and 11th seed Spain, Bulgaria, Poland, Colombia, Kazakhstan, India, Serbia, Ukraine and Turkey.

It was the biggest win by the Filipinas in the Olympiad thus far they pulled off the rug from a Polish team that has rating way higher than the former, 2402-2171.

The men's squad, in contrast, fell apart against a heavily favored Ukraine side with stinging defeats to GMs John Paul Gomez and rookie Paulo Bersamina to Ruslan Ponomariov and Alexander Moiseenko on second and fourth boards, respectively.

GMs Julio Catalino Sadorra and Eugene Torre, playing a record 22nd Olympiad, averted a shutout by forcing former World Challenger Vassily Ivanchuk and Anton Korobov on Board One and Three.

The Filipinos, who were playing with chip on their shoulders after Wesley So changed allegiance and decided to coach the Americans instead and Oliver Barbosa failed to make it to Tromso due to visa delays, just proved no match against the Ukrainians, whose average rating of 2712 is way above the former's 2479.

The Phl thus fell down to the middle of the standings with three points and will clash with Finland.