BUDAPEST— Playing with a sense of urgency, Grandmasters Julio Catalino Sadorra and John Paul Gomez crushed their respective rivals and revived the country’s faltering bid with a 3-1 demolition of South Africa in the eighth round Thursday in the 45th Chess Olympiad on Thursday, Sept. 19, at the BOK Sports Hall here.
Sadorra turned back International Master Jan Karsten in 36 moves of a Queen’s Pawn duel on board one while Gomez waylaid FIDE Master Banele Mhango in 34 moves of the Jaenisch Variation of the Ruy Lopez on board three as the Filipinos moved into a big group in the top 30 with 10 match points each.
IMs Paulo Bersamina and Jan Emmanuel Garcia both split their games early with Caleb Levi Levitan and Daniel Cawdery at boards two and four, respectively, before Gomez and Sadorra unleashed the killer blows.
The win was a soothing balm for the Filipinos after absorbing back-to-back defeats at the hands of the Armenians, 2.5-1.5, and the Croats, 3.5-.5, that pulled them out of the top 10.
Sadorra, a University of Texas in Dallas coach, said they would need all the prayers and support when they go for the final push in their medal search starting with a ninth-round duel with the United Arab Emirates.
“We will need all the encouragement to keep fighting hard for our team,” said Sadorra, who is running sixth in the hotly contested individual medal race on board one.
It was Sadorra’s fourth win against two draws for five points in performances that earned him raves from old-time Filipino experts led by veteran journalist Ignacio Dee.
“Iba ang tira nya ngayon, talagang nag-aral ng husto,” said Dee.
But as the Filipinos breathed life to their campaign, the Filipinas stumbled, absorbing a heartbreaking 2.5-1.5 defeat to 16th seed Turkey to likewise fall out of the top 20 and land into a share of top 30 with a pack of 10-pointers.
Shania Mae Mendoza fought long and hard for a match-tying draw but faltered in the end to Ekaterina Atalik in a marathon 100-move result of a Slav encounter at board one that sealed the country’s painful fate.
Janelle Mae Frayna, Ruelle Canino and Bernadette Galas all agreed to draws with Betul Cemre Yildiz Kadioglu, Gulaney Aydin and Hayale Isgenderova, respectively, in the lower boards, before Mendoza’s last-gasp attempt at a miracle that didn’t materialize.
They clash with the 22nd seed Romanians next.
