Sadorra starts chess comeback

MANILA, Philippines – Grandmaster Julio Catalino Sadorra, the country’s highest rated chesser today, is finding his way back into fighting form after taking a hiatus from competitive chess to focus on coaching.

He has started to pick up the pieces again.

“I’m now practicing and playing to slowly take off the rust,” the 33-year-old Sadorra told The STAR on Tuesday.

Last year, Sadorra has temporarily set aside his personal ambition by accepting the coaching job at University of Texas-Dallas where he was a former member of its chess team and graduated with a degree of Business Administration.

Sadorra had actually been coaching from the side being one of the many mentors of Jeffery Xiong, who recently beat world champion Magnus Carlsen in one game before eventually losing their match in Clutch Chess recently.

He handled Xiong from 2013 until 2015 before the 19-year-old Plano, Texas native became a GM that same year.

“I like mentoring, and motivating people,” said Sadorra.

Sadorra was so dedicated to his new job that he skipped the Philippine qualifying tournament that staked slots to the World Chess Olympiad in Russia, which was eventually postponed from this year to the next due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the lure of playing and his passion for the game led him to start competing again with hopes of reclaiming his rightful place in the national team where he suited up for three Olympiad editions including two on Board One in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2016 and Batumi, Georgia in 2018.

At present, Sadorra’s rating has stagnated at 2549 but he remained the highest ranked Filipino to date ahead of GMs Mark Paragua (2529), Oliver Barbosa (2509) and Banjo Barcenilla (2463), who incidentally are all US-based like the former.

Sadorra can be best remembered for nearly pulling the rug from under Carlsen, the current world champion in standard, rapid and blitz, before ending up with a draw in the Baku Olympiad.

But if Sadorra can summon the same form he had in the past, it would be good news for Philippine chess.