By REY BANCOD
THE Philippines won the first two boards to edge Slovakia, 2.5-1.5, Tuesday in the second round of the 43rd World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia.
Grandmasters Julio Catalino Sadorra and John Paul Gomez cruised to their second straight victories, International Master Jan Emmanuel Garcia settled for a draw at board three, but FIDE Master Mari Joseph Turqueza lost in board four.
With their second straight win, the Filipinos remained in the company of 41 teams with perfect scores.
The women’s team, however, lost to Slovenia, 2.5-1.5, despite the rousing victory of WGM Janelle Mae Frayna at board one.
WFM Shania Mae Mendoza and WIM Marie Antoinette San Diego went down in board three and four while WIM Catherine Secopito salvaged a draw in board two.
The Filipinos are ranked only 54th in the Open section after sending only two grandmasters in the world’s most prestigious chess team tournament.
Sadorra, now based in the United States, played aggressively with white against the Catalan Opening to beat GM Christopher Repka via mate in 37 moves.
“Pumasok sa opening preparation ni Sadorra ang kalaban. After which he got quality advantage,” said PH captain GM Eugene Torre.
Gomez, on the other hand, fought through a difficult position with black off a Ruy Lopez opening before stealing the win following an endgame error by GM Tomas Petrik who resigned after 65 moves.
Garcia secured the win by holding IM Viktor Gazik to a draw despite a pawn down after 65 moves of a Dutch Defense.
“Jan (Garcia) managed to create disturbing bishop and queen threats to salvage the draw that secured our match victory,” Torre noted.
Turqueza seemed unprepared with the Sicilian with black and sacrificed a piece with two pawns, a disadvantage he could not recover against IM Martin Nayhebaver. He quit after 41 moves.
In the third round Tuesday, Torre said he would rest Turqueza and field IM Haridas Pascua against Croatia, an all-GM team with an average ELO rating of 2600.
Frayna scored her second straight win at the expense of WIM Laura Unuk while Secopito held WFM Lara Janzeli to a draw.
However, Mendoza lost to WGM Jana Krivec while San Diego gave up against WFM Teja Vidic.
The Filipinas try to bounce back against Venezuela Tuesday.
Three Filipinos playing for other chess federations had mixed results.
GM Wesley So, playing the second board for the United States, humbled Luka Oboladze to lift his team to a 2.5-1.5 squeaker over Georgia 3.
GM Bong Villamayor, on the other hand, averted an embarrassing shutout for Singapore when he held GM Constantin Lupulescu of Romania to a draw in the top board.
IM Enrique Paciencia, also playing for Singapore, resigned against GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac in board two.
