Phl blanks Kazakhstan, shares lead with 12 others in Olympiad

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines shut down Kazakhstan, 4-0, to remain in the lead with fancied Russia and Ukraine and 10 others after three rounds of the World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey Thursday night.

Grandmasters Wesley So, Oliver Barbosa and Mark Paragua and International Master Oliver Dimakiling posted emphatic wins to complete the rout win that hiked the 35th-seeded Filipinos’ total to six points.

The Nationals, who earlier beat the Libyans, 4-0, and the 26th seed Moldovans, 2.5-1.5, hope to sustain their form when they take on the heavily favored Armenians, seeded third and coming off a hard-fought 2.5-1.5 win over tough Spain, in the fourth round Friday.

So employed the old, seldom-used line of the Gruenfeld Defense and came up with a piece up to hammer out a 63-move victory over GM Rinat Jumabayev while Barbosa gave up his queen for a rook and a knight and later some pawns to eke out a 61-move win over GM Anuar Ismagambetov in their Queen’s Indian duel.

Paragua brilliantly unleashed a sacrificial attack en route to a quick 28-move victory over GM Petr Kostenko in a Caro-Kann encounter while Dimakiling sacrificed his queen for a pair of bishops to outwit IM Kirill Kuderinov in 38 moves of a variation of a Queen’s Pawn game.

But the gritty Filipinos will be tested against the Armenians with So taking on GM Levon Aronian, currently ranked No. 2 in the world by FIDE with an impressive rating of 2816, in an interesting top board match up.

With So and company’s sterling performance, GM Eugene Torre might sit out another game before formalizing his record 21st Olympiad appearance.

Matching the Phl’s big start are Armenia, top seed Russia, No. 2 Ukraine, No. 4 Hungary, No. 5 USA, No. 6 China, No. 7 Azerbaijan, No. 8 France, No. 11 England, No. 13 India, No. 14 Germany and No. 16 Poland.

The Olympiad is using a new scoring system that gives two points to a match win, a point to a draw and none to a loss and did away with the old practice of accumulating all the won and drawn games from all four boards.

The Phl’s women’s team, meanwhile, bounced back from a 1.5-2.5 defeat to Slovenia in the second round, as it thrashed Tukmenistan, 3-1, to jump to a share of 23rd with 30 others at four points.

WIM Catherine Perena, Janelle Mae Frayna and Jan Jodilyn Fronda won their respective matches to negate Jedara Docena’s loss on board three.

The Filipinas, seeded 57th, will meet the 60th-seeded Mexicans, who downed a differently-abled team, 3-1, in the fourth round.