RP chessers head for home

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Five chess players sent by the Philippine Chess Federation to compete in the World Chess Olympics left yesterday for Manila, leaving the team backed by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines in competition two rounds into the 13-round Swiss System tournament.

IMs Richard Bitoon, Enrique Paciencia and Jayson Gonzales and NMs Rolly Martinez and Petronio Roca checked out of their hotel at noon yesterday to take the afternoon flight to Manila via Dubai.

GM-candidate Rogelio Barcenilla, Jr., who was to arrive Nov. 1 from California, was also advised to cancel his trip although he wanted to be here to make sure he obtains his grandmaster’s title.

The title is expected to be confirmed during the FIDE Congress Nov. 8-12.

Barcenilla missed obtaining the GM title by .01 in 1998. He said former FIDE president Florencio Campomanes himself advised the FIDE committee to follow strictly the guidelines.

Barcenilla, a former two-time Asian Juniors champion now based in the United States, has emerged the top player in Arizona and has claimed to have reached the top 40 rankings in the mainland.

Meanwhile, the NCFP-backed squad, beefed by three GMs in Eugene Torre, Rogelio Antonio, Jr. and Bong Villamayor, squeezed past Bangladesh, 2.5-1.5, and was running tied for eighth-16th places on 6.5 points with England, Estonia, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Cuba and France.

For the first time in many Olympiads, the lesser-fancied teams edged perennial powerhouse teams like the US, China and the Czech Republic in the early going of the two-week long event. They are all bunched in the six-pointer group and was trailing pacesetting Hungary (8.0), Germany and Moldova (7.5) and Armenia, Slovakia and India (7.0).

The NCFP team plays Switzerland in the third round Monday.

GM Eugene Torre, who sat out the first round, outplayed S. Bin in 35 moves of a French defense, while IM Barlo Nadera snatched victory from the clutches of defeat by beating S. Rakib on board 3 in a slambang encounter.

Those wins cushioned the impact of Villamayor’s defeat to R. Zia on board 2, while NM Idelfonso Datu halved the point with Rajib to secure the team’s 2.5 point.

Antonio, who spearheaded the team’s 4-0 rout of South Africa in the first round, took a rest yesterday.

The women’s team of NCFP, however, continued to flounder with Arianne Caoili, who was given the honor to man the top board, dropping her second straight game. She lost to Turkey A’s top player Cinak.

Leah Bernardo also lost to B. Yildiz while Beverly Mendoza averted a shutout stint by the Filipinas by holding C. Cavusoglu to a draw.