Last night the Philippine Women's team, with rookies at the helm, continued their winning streak by trouncing Estonia 2.5 - 0.5. Catherine Perena, on board 1, playing the white side of a Rubinstein Nimzo won a piece early after some careless play by WIM Tsiganova. The win was nicely brought home with a timely return of that piece with 48. Bxg6+!!
Sheerily Cua drew on board 2 while veteran Beverly Mendoza executed a sweet finish against WFM Valeria Gansvind to secure the victory. The Pinays will go into the 13th round against the awesome Slovenians who will have the services of two WGMs.
The Pinoys drew their match 2-2 against Switzerland. Mark Paragua posted his fourth loss but he can console himself for having gone down to a true living legend, Viktor Korchnoi. Both Antonio and Torre drew their games. FM Oliver Dimakling, of Davao, defeated IM Richard Forster. Forster possibly miscalculated and missed that 48. Qxd4 was actually a check!
Team RP will face the strong Brazilian side in the final round.
Against the team from the Faroe Islands, the Aussie boys were expected to deliver a wipeout win. They came close with IM David Smerdon only drawing on board 2 against fellow international master John Rodgaard. The Aussies won that match 3.5 - 0.5.
The Aussie women's team had a familiar opponent playing on board 1 for Italy "A". IM Elena Sedina, formerly of The Ukraine, was the 2005 Australian Open Champion. Sadly for Aussie fans back home, WIMs Moylan and Caoili (boards 1 and 2 respectively) continue their bad run losing their games last night. Both of them have just 3 points each. But they can thank, once again, Ngan-Koshnitsky (on board 3) for saving them with a win over WGM Adina Maria Bogza.
Last Round Pairings
Men
Brazil - Philippines
Australia - Peru
Iraq - NZ
Women
Philippines - Slovenia
Australia - Ireland
Puerto Rico - NZ
More details from the WZ site and the Official site. I've also added the official logo on my right-bar. Click on it and you'll see a post with essential Olympiad coverage. Robert Huntington's blog is a must-read.
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1 comment:
Does Perena get the WIM norm? And is Dimakiling eligible for the GM norm?
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