Chessers fail to scale Great Wall

GUANGZHOU – The Chinese fortress stood firm and unshaken against the Philippine attack on all boards and played to a 3.5-.5 victory to clinch the gold and hand the Philippines the silver in the men’s team chess competitions yesterday in the XVI Asian Games.

Only the draw of Board 1 player Wesley So on the 31st move of a Slav Defense gave the Philippines a half point as China’s team of young super-GMs held their own in a brilliant show on the lower boards.

With Joey Antonio allowed to leave Guangzhou on doctors’ advice to have an infected ear operated on in Manila, John Paul Gomez (Elo 2522) moved up to Board 2 where he fell prey to Wang Hao (Elo 2727) and dropped his flag after 54 moves of the Slav Defense.

Darwin Laylo (Elo 2527), back in play after a string of losses, found little room for maneuver against the Gruenfeld Defense of Zhou Jianchao (Elo 2669) and gave up after 48 moves.

Senior chess player Eugene Torre (Elo 2484), whose victory along with Joey Antonio, gave the Philippines a 2.5-1.5 semifinal win over India to advance to the finals, accepted a knight sacrifice on the 37th move and found his kingside besieged by opponent Ni Hua (Elo 2633).

He resigned on the 55th move of the Ruy Lopez Opening. “They’re really tough, even the presence of Joey can’t help win this matchup the way the Chinese played today,” said team coach Willie Abalos.

In the battle for the bronze, India also crushed Iran, 3.5-0.5, behind a draw by Harikrishna on Board one and wins by Krishnan Sasikiran, Surya Ganguly and B Adhiban on the lower boards.