Rested Pinoy chessers face Belarus

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines takes on Belarus at the resumption of its campaign in the 39th World Chess Olympiad, hoping to keep the momentum of its fifth round win over Paraguay at the Khanty-Mansiysk Sports Development Center in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia Monday.

GM Wesley So hopes to get going after four straight draws as he plays the white pieces against GM Sergei Zhigalko on the top board.

GM John Paul Gomez squares off with GM Vitaly Teterev, IM Richard Bitoon meets IM Kiril Stupak and GM Darwin Laylo takes over from GM Eugene Torre to face Evgeny Podolchenko.

The Filipinos are in joint 16th with seven points based on the match-point style scoring system which gives two points or a win and one point for a draw.

Defending champion Armenia, Hungary and Georgia show the way with 10 points with six rounds remaining.

Bitoon, who took over the slot left by veteran GM Joey Antonio, proved his worth in the early going, emerging as the country’s leading scorer with four points on three wins and two draws.

So opened his campaign with a win but settled for draws in the next four for three points.

Gomez has 2.5 points on two wins, one draw and one loss, while Torre has two points on one win and two draws in the last three rounds.

Laylo struggled with only 1.5 points on 1-1-1 win-draw-loss record.

In the women’s division, the Philippines, led by Cheradee Chardine Camacho, Shercila Cua, Rulp Ylem Jose and Jedara Docena, plays No. 56 seed Mexico.

Ranked 52nd in the 115-nation field, the Filipinas are in joint 25th with six points on two wins, two draws and only one loss. 

The Filipinas have won over Netherlands Antilles (4-0) and Qatar (4-0) and drew with No. 23 seed Israel (2-2) and No. 28 Argentina (2-2). They, however, lost to No. 14 seed Romania (0.5-3.5) in the second round.

In other featured matches in men’s play, Armenia plays Georgia, Hungary meets Ukraine, Russia-1 faces Czech Republic, Russia-2 battles Netherlands, Azerbaijan tests India, United States tackles Vietnam, Poland meets Estonia and China goes up against Montenegro. 

 In the women’s division, it will be Russia-1 against Ukraine, Georgia against United States, Hungary against Poland, Russia-3 against China, India agaist Italy, Bulgaria against Serbia, Armenia against Russia-2, Switzerland against Germany, Estonia against Romania and Uzbekistan against Spain.