By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Philippines Team 1 crushed Russia Team 2, 3-1, and finally barged into the top 10 for the first time after three rounds of the 1st FIDE Online Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities Monday.
World champion Sander Severino, Henry Lopez and Darry Bernardo downed Yuri Meshkov, Ruslan Draganov and Alexey Pakhomov on boards one to three to seal the Filipinos’ second straight win and a share of seventh place with Israel and Poland Team 2 with five match points each.
Cheyzer Crystal Mendoza was the lone casualty for the squad after falling to Polina Taranenko on board four.
The PH team, seeded third out of 61 participants from 45 countries and skippered by non-playing James Infiesto, was playing the fourth-seeded Israel in the fourth round at press time and eyeing nothing less than another win that would push further up the standings.
Philippines Team 2, meanwhile, settled for a 2-2 draw with India Team 3 after Menandro Redor was distracted by poor internet connection and misplayed a winning game into a standoff.
SO STAYS IN QF HUNT
Meanwhile, Grandmaster Wesley So downed Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem in scoring three points in his last five games to stay in the quarterfinal hunt after 10 rounds in the Skilling Open of the 2020-2021 Champions Chess Tour Monday.
So’s victory over Le came in the ninth round after draws with Dutch Anish Giri in the sixth, Russian Sergey Karjakin in the seventh, American Hikaru Nakamura in the eighth and Indian Vidit Gujrathi in the 10th.
The two-time United States champion has hiked his total to six points to tie reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and World No. 3 Ding Liren of China at second.
Giri kept his stranglehold of the top spot with 6.5 points.
