Round 9 - Torre Wins

Last night Team Philippines drew their match, 2-2, with the all-GM outfit of Romania. Mark Paragua on the first board seemed to lose his way in the opening and was never in it. The Pinoy super-GM went down to current European Champion GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in just 24 moves.

On boards 2 and 3, those old warriors grandmasters Torre and Antonio saved the day for RP by beating their rivals. Torre downed Andrei Istratescu, the same player that Australian GM Rogers defeated in round 2; while Antonio won a nice Rook endgame over GM Nevednichy.

Twelve-year old Wesley So, on board 4, lost a tough game to Levente Vajda. The Philippines is slated to play against South East Asian neighbour Malaysia in the next round. That one should be interesting.

After very narrow wins over the previous 2 rounds, Australia lost to Egypt last night 2.5 - 1.5. With Rogers stricken with illness and IM David Smerdon enjoying a well-earned rest, the honour of leading the Aussie charge fell on the shoulders of young IM Zong-Yuan Zhao. The Sydneysider deserves a huge pat on the back. He drew with Egypt's number 1, GM Ahmed Adly.

Australia vs Egypt, round 9 (Photo by Larry Ermacora)

IM Lane, on second board, went down to IM El Taher while Wohl posted his fourth win a row beating fellow IM Imed Abdelnabbi.

Victoria's Nicolas Speck, however, playing on board 4 is running the risk of being benched for the remainder of this event. Speck once again lost IM Mohammed Ezat. Ezat, by the way, played in the 2001 Australian Open in Canberra.

The Aussie women last night reversed their fortunes by defeating Guatemala 2.5 - 0.5. Laura Moylan, on board 2, drew with WIM Mazariegos.

Australia vs Guatemala, round 9 (Photo by Larry Ermacora)

Round 10 Pairings

Men
Australia - Scotland
Philippines - Malaysia
NZ - Ireland

Women
Australia - Moldova
Albania - Philippines
Panama - NZ

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