BUDAPEST, Hungary—Ready for battle.
And so the Philippine teams are as they battle Aruba in the men’s division and Malawi in the women’s side as action opened last night in the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad at the BOK Sports Hall here.
Ranked 51st out of a record 197 participants in the men’s section alone, the Filipinos were expected to prevail over the 153rd-ranked Aruban side that only has a single FIDE Master and two Candidate Masters as against the former’s all-masters squad.
International Masters Daniel Quizon and Paulo Bersamina, Grandmaster John Paul Gomez and IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia received a marching order to go for the kill early while awaiting their top board player GM Julio Catalino Sadorrra.
Sadorra is scheduled to arrive Friday, just in time for the third round.
Meanwhile, the women’s side made a surprise move by putting WGM Janelle Mae Frayna on board two and WFM Shania Mae Mendoza to board one from her usual designation at the lower boards to give the team more chances of winning.
That meant it will be Mendoza, Frayna, WIM Jan Jodilyn Fronda and teenage sensation Ruelle Canino suiting up at the first four boards with WIM Bernadette Galas, whose participations are being bankrolled by the Philippine Sports Commission through chair Richard Bachmann and commissioner Ed Hayco and backed by NCFP chief Butch Pichay, as alternate versus their lower ranked African foes.
“The goal is to have more winning chances. Besides, we only need 2.5 points to win a match,” said National Chess Federation of the Philippines chief executive officer and national women’s coach GM Jayson Gonzales.
The 11-round tournament implements a scoring system where in a victory will be equivalent to two points, a draw one point and a loss none.
Both the country’s squads are eyeing at least a top 20 finish, possibly higher, and eclipse its 32nd finish in the men’s and 39th in the women’s in the last edition in Chennai, India two years ago.
