The 39th Olympiad in review

DESPITE logistics problems, the 39th Olympiad at Khanty Mansiyk, Russia was considered by the players as well-organized.


The Philippines men’s team started with a bang and ended with a whimper. We actually shared 49th to 63rd places, but after the Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak was applied, we placed 50th, the country’s worst performance in the biennial meet.



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The RP men’s team garnered a total of 12 match points after 11 rounds of competition, while the ladies ended up in 44th place with the same score after the tiebreak points were applied.


The Filipinos had their best-ever finish in 1988 in Thessaloniki, Greece at seventh.


But the rest of the world continued on improving while we were practically at a standstill.


The turning point was the game between Cebuano Richard Bitoon ,who up to that time was considered a hero and IM Aleksander Volodin of Estonia. Before the final-round
setback, Bitoon was the second-best Filipino performer after Wesley So with six points on four wins, four draws and one loss while playing on board five.


If Richard had won, we would have finished in the top 20.


On the other hand, National Chess Federation of the Philippines president Prospero
Pichay, Jr. was named by Fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to the Panel of Advisers.


NCFP secretary-general Abraham Tolentino was elected Zone President 0f Southeast Asia.


Pichay was instrumental in the reelection of Kirsan for another four-year term after Pichay lectured former world champion Gary Kasparov on parliamentary procedure during the Congress.


WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STATS.


Here are the top six men’s team (match /game points): 1.) Ukraine (19/31), 2.) Russia 1 (18/28) 3.) Israel(17/29), 4.) Hungary (17/26.5), 5.) China (16/29), 6.) Russia 2 (16/29.5).


Women’s section: 1.) Russia 1 (22/34) , 2.) China (18/31.5) 3.) Georgia (16/29) 4.) Cuba (16/30) 5.) USA (16/28.5 ) 6. Poland (16/29.5).


Medal winners, men’s section:


Board 1: Gold medal: Vassily Ivanchuk, 8/10, 2890.


Silver: Levon Aronian (Armenia), 7.5/10, TPR (Tourament Performance Rating) 2888.
Bronze: Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia 2), 6.5/9, 2821.


Board 2: Gold Emil Sutovsky (Israel), 6.5/8, 2895.


Silver: Zoltan Almasi (Hungary), 7/10, 2801.


Bronze: Wang Hao (China), 7.5/10, 2783.


Board 3: Gold medal Vitaly Teterev (Belarus), 7/8, 2853.


Silver: Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine), 7/10, 2737.


Bronze: Sergei Rublevsky (Russia 3), 8/11, 2727.


Board 4:Gold medal Sergey Karjakin (Russia 1), 8/10, 2859.


Silver medal Zahar Efimenko (Ukraine), 8.5/11, 2783.


Bronze medal: Anish Giri (The Netherlands), 8/11, 2730.


Board 5: Gold medal: Sebastien Feller (France), 6/9, 2708.


Silver: Mateusz Bartel (Poland), 7/9, TPR 2706.


Bronze: Vlastimil Babula (Czech Republic), 7/9 2668.


Medal winners women’s section :


Board 1:Gold medal: Tatiana Kosintseva 7/10, 2628


Board 2:Gold medal Nadezhda Kosintseva (Russia 1), 8.5/10, 2662.


Board 3:Gold medal Yaniet Marrero Lopez (Cuba), 7/8, 2511.


Board 4:Gold medal Inna Gaponenko (Ukraine), 7.5/8, TPR 2691


Board 5:Gold medal Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine), 6.5/9, 2431


(boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)


Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 08, 2010.