Torre and So overpower Uzbeks, boost medal bid

GUANZHOU – The Philippines, inspired by its fifth round win over India, clobbered Uzbekistan, 3.5-0.5, and solidified its hold of second place behind runaway China going into the last three rounds of the Asian Games chess competitions last night at the Guangzhou Chess Institute.

Grandmaster Wesley So scored the only draw, with fellow super GM Rustan Kasimdzhanov, in the sixth round where the Filipinos scored full points on wins of GM Rogelio Antonio over Anton Filipov, John Paul Gomez over Alexei Barsov and Eugene Torre over Khamrakulov.

The Filipinos now have 10 points for second place, two points in front of India but two points behind front-running China which kept its lead with a 4-0 victory over Kyrgystan.

China’s formidable lineup of four super GMs – Wang Hao (Elo 2727), Bu Xiangzhi (2680), Zhou Jianchao (2669) and Ni Hua (2633) – scored the wins over the Kyrgystan chessers who all had Elo ratings of below 2400.

India also bounced back into contention and was breathing down the Filipinos’ necks with 9 points from its 3.5-0.5 win over Qatar.

Young super GMs P Harikrishna, Krishnan Sasikiran and Surya Ganguly gained full points with board 4 player GN Gopal halving the point.

The victory came on the heels of the team’s shock 2.5-1-5 victory over second seed India Monday, giving the Philippines a 10-point total heading to the last three rounds of the nine-round tournament.

Antonio, a last-minute addition to the team, rediscovered his old, deadly form and subdued the higher-rated GM Anton Filippov in 62 moves of the French defense.

The multi-awarded campaigner from Calapan, Oriental Mindoro outwitted the Uzbek champion in a sharp rook and pawn endgame and clinched the win with two unstoppable queening pawns on the seventh rank.

Antonio had a rook and four pawns against Filippov’s rook and two pawns when the Uzbek resigned.

Equally impressive was Gomez, who overcame a strong challenge with the black to beat GM Alexei Barsov in 83 moves of the Slav defense.

Gomez, who keyed the team’s victory over Kazakhstan in the fourth round, forced Barsov to resign with a mate threat in one. He had a queen, bishop and three pawns against Barsov’s queen, knight and one pawn at endgame.

The veteran Torre, meanwhile, proved he still got what it takes to win big games, outwitted GM Dzhurabke Khamrakulov in marathon 84 moves of the Larsen Attack to complete the Filipinos’ sixth round romp.

Khamrakulov resigned after Torre managed to push his two pawns to the sixth rank while pinning his rival’s king on h8.

So held Kasimdzhanov, the Asian Games rapid champion, to a draw via repetition of moves in 21 moves of the English opening to complete the Filipinos’ domination of the Uzbeks.