Women chessers trim Mexico; men's squad bows to Armenia

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines women’s team downed Mexico, 3-1, to make up for its men’s counterparts’ heartbreaking 1.5-2.5 defeat to third seed Armenia after four rounds of the World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey Friday night.

Woman International Master Catherine Perena, Janelle Mae Frayna and Jan Jodilyn Fronda delivered the wins on boards one, three and four that sent the Filipina chessers to a share of 13th place with 18 others with six points each.

The lone Phl casualty was Rulp Ylem Jose, whose Slav defense was totally destroyed by Ivette Ale Garcia Morales in 56 moves on Board Three.

It somehow soothed the pain felt by the men’s side following a narrow defeat at the hands of the Armenians.

Grandmaster Gabriel Sargissian’s clinical 25-move victory over IM Oliver Dimakiling in their Benoni encounter on Board Four clinched the Armenians’ win. GMs Wesley So, Oliver Barbosa and Mark Paragua drew their games with high-rated opponents.

So halved the point with GM Levon Aronian, ranked second in the world with an impressive elo rating of 2816, in 51 moves of a Ruy Lopez duel.

So borrowed an old line from teammate and Olympiad veteran Eugene Torre in stalling the massive attack by Aronian, who couldn’t get anything out of their rook-against-knight-and-pawns endgame and settled for the draw.

Barbosa split the point with GM Sergei Movsesian in 37 moves of another Slav battle while Paragua had a dangerous pair of knights and a rook against GM Vladimir Akopian’s two rooks but the two still agreed to halve the point in 45 moves of yet another Slav game.

It was the first defeat by the Filipinos following impressive victories over Libya, Moldova and Kazakhstan in the first three rounds.

The Phl skidded to a share of 16th place along with 20 others including sixth seed China, which lost to top seed Russia, 1-3.

The Phl, ranked 35th, is scheduled to face Iceland next.

Iceland, a perennial contender, has sent a team here that is only seeded 61st.

The women’s side, ranked 57th, will take on 61st pick South Africa.

The 60-year-old Torre is expected to play his first game against Iceland, making him the chesser with the most Olympiad appearance with 21, surpassing the 20 by Hungarian GM Lajos Portisch.