Pinays gain Asian Chess semis vs Indonesians; Pinoys fall

The Philippine women’s team achieved what its men’s team failed to do in the Asian Nations Chess Cup on Friday, October 23.

Living up to hype, the Filipinas dumped the Sri Lankans, 3.5-0.5, in the first and second matches to advance to the semifinals against the Indonesians on Saturday.

The Filipinos, though, got swept by the Kazakhs in the first round, 4-0, and was routed in the second, 3-1, in their quarterfinal tussle to bow out of the online tournament.

Woman International Master Jan Jodilyn Fronda repeated over Ashvini Ravalachandran in the first deciding game of the reverse match to assure the Filipinas of a last-four stint in the women division.

Fronda’s victory pushed the Philippines beyond reach, 4.5-0.5, rendering the games of Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna, Woman Fide Master Shania Mae Mendoza, and WIM Kylen Joy Mordido no-bearing.

Regardless, Frayna also repeated over Tharusi Sandeepani on board 1, Mendoza won over Woman Candidate Master Niklesha Tharushi on board 3, while Mordido drew with SD Ranasinghe on board 4 for another 3.5-0.5 result.

WIM Bernadette Galas was rested in the second match after a draw with Tharushi.

Seeded just 7th, the Filipinas, captained by Grandmaster Jayson Gonzales, are assured of at least 4th place even if they lose to the Indonesians, who bested the Iranians via tiebreaker after they wound up tied after the two matches. 

Iran won the first match, 2.5-1.5, but Indonesia took the second by the same score.

“The girls have a purpose, they have a calling to be in the semis,” said Gonzales.

Smarting from the 1.5-2.5 beating they absorbed from the Filipinos in the preliminaries, the second-seeded Kazakhs fielded their strongest team, with GM Rinat Jumabayev asserting his superiority over GM Mark Paragua on board 1. 

Beaten by GM Rusta Khunutdinov in the first match, GM Rogelio Barcenilla settled for a draw in the second.

GM Anuar Ismagambatov beat IM Paulo Bersamina, the board 3 gold medalist, twice as the former Soviet republic proved true to their second seeding behind the Indians.

GM John Paul Gomez returned to board 4 in place of IM Haridas Pascua and drew with IM Denis Makhnev.

“The form chart simply held true. The Kazakhs are strong, but at least the women’s team played very well,” said men’s captain GM Eugene Torre. – Rappler.com