THE Filipino men's team Philippines' men's team bounced back from a second round loss but the women's team bowed to India in the third round of the ongoing 42nd World Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan as of Monday, September 5.
The men's team, seeded 53rd in the 150-team division, defeated 87th-ranked Nigeria, 3-1, with Filipino grand masters (GMs) John Paul Gomez, Eugenio Torre and Rogelio Barcenilla outclassing their rivals Fide masters Bomo Kigigha and Daniel Anwuli and international master (IM) Oladapo Adu in boards 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Filipino IM Paulo Bersamina, however, lost to candidate master (CM) Adeyinka Adesina.
The country's male squad, whose team captain is Dabawenyo James Infiesto, bowed to 39th-seeded Paraguay, 1.5-2.5, in the second round after eking out a 4-0 shutout victory over 145th-ranked Jersey (JCI) at the start of the 11-round Swiss System format chessfest. The team has 8.5 points so far.
"We have better performance in relation to our initial team ranking of 53rd out of 150 teams coz we are tied on the 28th spot with super chess countries (Hungary, Poland, Azerbaijan 2, etc.)," Infiesto said in a Facebook chat Monday.
Top-ranked Russia and fourth-seeded Azerbaijan 1 each tallied 11 points to grab the first two spots of the men's open standings.
Infiesto, however, said: "Mahaba pa ang laban." The team was playing No. 70 Costa Rica as of this writing.
In the distaff side, 46th-seeded Philippines succumbed to fifth-ranked India, 0.5-3.5, in their third round clash.
Woman IM Janelle Mae Frayna drew with Indian GM Dronavalli Harika in board 1 while WIM Jan Jodilyn Fronda, Christy Lamiel Bernales and WIM Catherine Secopito absorbed defeats from IM Rout Padmino, IM Sachdev Tania and WGM Swaminathan Soumya.
The setback followed the shocking upset win over fourth-seeded Georgia, 2.5-1.5, in the second round and 4-0 win triumph over Netherlands Antilles.
Philippines will next play Canada in the women's event.
