Barbosa pulled off big upset

Barbosa pulls off stunning win in chess Olympiad
By Joey Villar (philstar.com) Updated September 04, 2012 11:20 AM

MANILA, Philippines – International Master Oliver Barbosa turned a losing game into a winning effort as he pulled off a miraculous win over a fancied and more experienced Grandmaster Kiril Georgiev to lift the Philippines to a titanic 2.5-1.5 win over 10th seed Bulgaria and into a share of fourth place in the World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey last night.

Given up for dead after going down with a pair of rooks, a knight and two pawns against Georgiev’s queen, bishop and three pawns, a cramped position and little time, Barbosa kept plodding. His perseverance paid off after he led his foe to a trap, an open check that netted the latter’s queen, to snatch a 59-move win of their Slav duel.

It was enough to seal the 35th-ranked Filipinos the shock win against the Bulgarians, whose average rating of 2678 is way higher than the former’s average rating of 2546, and a share of fourth to eighth places with second seed Ukraine, fourth pick Hungary, No. 6 China and No. 18 Spain with 10 points apiece.

Only top pick Russia, No. 3 Armenia and No. 7 Azerbaijan were better with 11 points each.

Next stop for the Filipinos are the Hungarians, composed GMs Peter Leko, Zoltan Almasi, Judit Polgar and Ferenc Berkes who overpowered the 16th-seeded Polish squad, 3-1.

GMs Wesley So and Eugene Torre blew a pawn and positional advantages to settle for a 48-move draw with GM Veselin Topalov in a Nimzo-Indian showdown and a 47-move standoff in a seldom-used Phillsbury Defense with GM Ivan Cheparinov on Boards One and Two.

GM Mark Paragua, for his part, squeaked his way out of a slightly disadvantaged position against GM Alexander Delchev to escape with a 32-move draw in their super-sharp Sicilian encounter on Board four, leaving Barbosa the unenviable task of salvaging a draw at the least and, though a long shot, a win.

It appeared though that the 25-year-old Pasig City native, who started out a whiz kid from a poor family by topping the National Kiddies and Juniors tilts, was on his way to losing to Georgiev, a contemporary of Torre himself and a former top board player of Bulgaria before Topalov rose to the top, no thanks to a losing position.

But Barbosa, who is now the highest scorer of the team with five points on four wins and two draws in six games, plodded on by keeping his knight and a dangerous pair of rooks active, threw cushion to the wind, and launched a prayer with hopes of preventing the inevitable.

In the end, his prayers were answered.

The Phl men’s team has been defying expectations having coming off a previous Olympiad in Russia two years ago that saw it finishing a worst ever 50th place.

But with a combination of youth and experience provided by no less than the 60-year-old Torre, who owns the record with most number of Olympiad appearances with 21, himself, the Filipinos are making a run at not just surpassing its forgettable performance the last time out but also a seventh place effort in the 1988 edition in Thessaloniki, Greece.

And the Phl have five rounds achieve the impossible.

Not as fortunate as the Filipinos were the Phl lady chessers, who absorbed a painful 1-3 defeat at the hands of the 14th seeded French no thanks to losses by Janelle Mae Frayna, Jedara Docena and Jan Jodilyn Fronda on the lower boards.

Woman International Master Catherine Perena was the lone bright spot for the Filipinas as he came through with a masterful 54-move victory over IM Almira Schripchenko, a former Moldovan beauty who migrated to France, in a Reti duel.

The defeat kicked the Phl from the top 10 to a share of 18th to 28th spots, including No. 5 USA, with eight points and will have to beat Portugal in the seventh round to get back into contention.

Source: http://www.philstar.com