By Lynde Salgados
Correspondent

HEAVY draws and a loss in the penultimate round on Friday, November 12 mired the Filipinos’ chances heading into the ninth and final round of the 4th World Chess Championship for People with Disabilities.

As youthful Darry Bernardo fell on board 10 and Arena Grandmaster Henry Roger Lopez, Fide Master Sander Severino, Jasper Rom, and Rodolfo Sarmiento were all held to draws, the five-man Philippine Paralympic team was overtaken by India by half a point, 23 to 22.5 for the third spot in the team ranking.

Powerhouse Poland and Russia occupied the 1-2 spot after Friday's pressure-packed eight-round matches via Tornelo online format.

“Magkaalaman na sa last round, masyadong dikit labanan sa third place,” said the Filipinos’ coach National Master James Infiesto.

Infiesto said Cuba and Venezuela are also still in contention with India and the Philippines for the third-place honor in the team competition.

The Philippines’ winless struggle in the penultimate round was a stark contrast to its seventh-round performance where the Filipinos yielded just a draw in a near 5-0 shutout finish.

Bernardo (2114), after almost upstaging the No.1 seed Polish Grandmaster Tazbir Marcin in a drawn Round 7 tiff, was in early advantage against the lower-rated Spaniard David Fernandez Lago (2114).

However, the partially blind Bernardo went astray making some inferior moves ― including an unlikely Knight retreat to the back ranks ― that led to his fall down in 63 moves with the black of the Pirc defense.

“Masyado po ako nag isip dun sa move 24 na overthink po ako. After g5 dapat nag Qxb6 lang ako. Nag-blunder pa po ako dapat Re3 lang nung pagka Kg4 niya,” the 19-year-old Bernardo said of his game.

All superior in elo ratings than their respective foes, Lopez, Severino, and Rom were quick on the trigger trying to squeeze out a win. But Lopez could try no more and split the points with Russian defender Alexander Mulenko after only 23 moves of the King’s Indian Fianchetto Variation.

Severino (2364) halved the points with fellow FM Krishna Karthik K Venkata (1903) of India in a marathon 63-move Queen’s Gambit Declined encounter. While Rom (2202) agreed to a truce with Szymon Kasperczyk (1816) of Poland in another energy-zapping 76 squeaker of the Semi-Slav Noteboom Variation.

“I chose the sharp continuation in the middlegame instead of just nurturing my two advantageous pawns in the queenside,” was Rom’s regret.

The only one perched with the lower seeds, the completely blind Rodolfo Sarmiento (1546) tried to score his first back-to-back after a successful 7th round, but could not crack the 1891 Cuban Lorenzo Alexis Simon Batista and draw after 47 pushes of the King’s Indian.

Unbeaten leader, FM Sargis Sargissyan of Armenia was held to a draw by FM Stanislav Babarykin of Russia but remain in the solo lead at 7.5 points.

Babarykin shares the second pack at 7 points with FM Molenda Marcin of Poland, IM Jacek Stachanczyk of Poland, FM Carlos Despaigne Larduet of Cuba, Varvaglione Antonio of Italy, and FM Michael Becker of Germany.

Despite the draw, the experienced Rom now soared as the Philippines’ highest pointer at 6.5 points, sharing 8th to 13 places with five others in the overall individual standing.

Lopez checked in the 14-man bunch of 6 pointers, from 14th to 27 spots, while former PH leaders Severino and Bernardo landed in a 23-man group of 5.5 pointers deep down from 28th to 50 places.

Sarmiento is now 50 percent performance-wise, heading to the final round, with his 4.5-point output.

“Now we see the difference even with our lower-rated counterparts. Our chess practice in the Philippines is more on the blitz and rapid play. While the rest of the world is more prepared in standard time control that requires utmost patience and discipline. We will assess our chess program after this competition,” Infiesto said.