Philippines jumps to 5th place in PWD chess Olympiad

Team Philippines 1 climbed to 5th from 8th place after the revised computation of tiebreak points in the 1st FIDE Olympiad for People with Disabilities on Saturday, November 28.

Team Philippines 2, however, plummeted from 9th to 46th after one of its players was found to have violated the fair play policy.

Despite losing its seventh and last match to Russia 1, Philippines 1 came just half a point short of claiming 4th spot and advancing to the semifinals of the 61-team, 45-nation online event.

Russia 1 emerged top qualifier with 13 points, followed by Ukraine 3 with 12, Poland 1 with 11,  and Poland 3 with 10.

Booted out were Philippines 1, which also posted 10 points like sixth-ranked Poland 2, No. 7 Germany, No. 8 Russia 2, and No. 9 Croatia.

FIDE Master Sander Severino, the reigning world champion for the physically challenged, manned board 1 for Philippines 1 under non-playing team captain James Infiesto.

Completing the team are Arena Grandmaster Henry Lopez on board 2, Darry Bernardo, who emerged top performer with 6 points out of a perfect 7, on board 3, and Cheyzer Crystal Mendoza on board 4. Jasper Rom played as a reserve.

Team Philippines 1 gained after its 3-1 victory over Russia 2 in the third round was changed to 4-0 as Mendoza’s opponent was found to have violated the fair play policy.

The unexpected rise of Philippines 1, however, hardly compensated for the second team’s downfall after the  Fair Play Panel of FIDE and Tornelo ruled board 4 player Chery Angot committed fair play violation and amended her results to losses.

As a result, the 10 points total of Philippines 2, also composed of Menandro Redor, Arman Subaste, Felix Aguilera, Max Dave Tellor, and Israel Peligro and captained by FM Roel Abelgas, got reduced to 5.

Under the Online Olympiad regulations, the decision is unappealable. – Rappler.com