Pinoys bow to Estonia, logs worst ever finish in Olympiad
Cebu Daily News First
Posted 07:11:00 10/05/2010
CEBUANO International Master Richard Bitoon (ELO 2447) lost to fellow IM Aleksandr Volodin (ELO 2433) of Estonia on Sunday as the 37th-seed Philippines dropped to 50th overall at the close of the 39th World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.
With Bitoon’s loss, the RP team suffered a 1.5-2.5 defeat to the 48th-seeded Estonians.
Grandmasters (GM’s) Wesley So (2668), John Paul Gomez (2527) and Darwin Laylo (2522) settled for draws against GM Kaido Kulaots (2592), GM Meelis Kanep (2532) and IM Olav Sepp (2485), respectively.
The RP team tallied a total of 12 match points in the 11-round tournament.
Actually, the RP team tied for 49th to 63rd place, but after the Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak was applied, the Pinoys landed 50th over-all, the country’s worst performance in the biennial meet.
The Philippines finished 46th in the 38th edition of the event in Dresden, Germany topped by Armenia and logged their best-ever finish in 1988 in Thessaloniki, Greece where they placed seventh.
However, the chess landscape took on a drastic change following the breakup of the vaunted Soviet Republic and the rise of several nations that adopted former Soviet players.
In Istanbul, Turkey, the Filipinos came within a point of barging into the elite circle, winning their last three assignments to salvage 17th place, their best showing in the post-Soviet era.
Meanwhile, second seed Ukraine was declared over-all champion with 19 points, nipping top seed Russia 1 (18 points), Israel (17 points) and Hungary (17 points) which finished second third and fourth respectively.
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