Sadorra slays another super GM in Budapest

BUDAPEST – Filipino Grandmaster Julio Catalino Sadorra caught another big fish in super GM A.R. Saleh Salem to power the Philippines to a 4-0 decimation of the United Arab Emirates in the ninth round of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad at the BOK Sports Hall here Friday.

Unleashing another seldom-employed opening line, Sadorra threw the Smyslov Variation against Salem’s pet King’s Indian Defense that left the latter unaware and disoriented, leading to the former uncorking a sacrificial attack that resulted in a 35-move win.

Sadorra was ready to go for the jugular when Salem resigned.

The carnage was completed by equally emphatic wins by Daniel Quizon, Paulo Bersamina and Jan Emmanuel Garcia over Omran Al Hosani, Sedrani Ammar and Fareed Ahmed, respectively, in the lower boards.

The Filipinos are on course to replicating, if not surpassing, the country’s best performance in this biennial event – a seventh-place effort in 1988 in Greece where GM Eugene Torre, now their coach, manned the top board.

With two rounds to go, the Philippines shares 20th place with a big group with 12 match points before facing an all-GM Georgian side, seeded 32nd, in the penultimate round.

Sadorra, unscathed with six points in seven matches, is running third in the individual medal race at board one with a tournament performance rating of 2845.

Sadorra’s heroics soothed the heartaches caused by the Filipinas’ 3-1 defeat to the fancied Romanians with prodigious 16-year-old Ruelle Canino preventing a shutout with a mammoth triumph over WGM Carmen Voicu-JJagodzinsky at board three.

Sadorra earlier conquered Russian émigré and now super GM Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia.