BUDAPEST— Grandmaster Julio Catalino Sadorra claimed the scalp of another super grandmaster to highlight the Philippines’ 4-0 carnage of the United Arab Emirates in a win that firmed up its bid of eclipsing its best finish in the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad on Friday, Sept. 20, at the BOK Sports Hall here
Getting better and deadlier as the tournament wears on, Sadorra caught super Grandmaster A. R. Saleh Salem by surprise by throwing the rarely used line against his rival’s pet King’s Indian Defense.
That resulted to a 35-move victory that him sacrifice a bishop and a knight that left his rival’s kingside naked.
Daniel Quizon, Paulo Bersamina and Jan Emmanuel Garcia likewise hurdled their respective assignments — Omran Al Hosani, Sedrani Ammar and Fareed Ahmed — in the lower boards that helped the Filipinos ascend to a big group in Top 20 with 12 match points apiece.
With two rounds to go, the country also stayed in the hunt of replicating, if not eclipsing, its best finish in the biennial meet of seventh in the 1988 edition in Thessaloniki, Greece where its current coach, GM Eugene Torre, was then the country’s top board player.
The win likewise boosted Sadorra’s chances of a podium finish at board one with 6 points on five wins – 3.5 points against super GMs – and two draws. He is running third with a performance rating of 2845, behind only Indian sensation Dommaraju Gukesh.
The Indian, who will challenge reigning world champion Ding Liren of China, has a tournament-leading rating of 3012 with Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov slightly behind at 2949.
The Filipinos is hoping to produce better result when they clash with the 32nd-seeded and all-GM Georgians in the penultimate round.
Interestingly, one of the super GM victims of Sadorra, Russian émigré Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia, shocked former world champion and current No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway that same round.
“I chose to play like Smyslov and used the Smyslov Variation against my opponent’s favorite King’s Indian,” said Sadorra referring to former world champion Vassily Smyslov of the Soviet Union.
“Nung nag c5 at b5 siya later, naging Benko structure pero worse version sa kanya,” he added.
Also, the Filipinos are also in contention for a category prize medal, an award given to non-podium finishers per their rating group, as they lead Group B in a super tight race.
It also made up for the heartbreaks of the Filipinas, who succumbed to the Romanians, 3-1.
Wonder girl Ruelle Canino clawed her way out of the grave by stunning WGM Carmen Voicu-JJagodzinsky at board 3 that averted a shutout.
Janelle Frayna, Jan Jodilyn Fronda and Bernadette Galas all sputtered on boards one, two and four to Irina Bulmaga, Mihaela Sandu and Miruna-Daria Lehaci, respectively.
From a share in the Top 30, the Filipinas slumped to a spot in the top 50.
