PEOPLE frowned on the decision by Philippine women’s team coach, Grandmaster (GM) Jayson Gonzales, a month ago when he decided to put Mhage Sebastian, an untitled Olympiad debutant, on top board where she would face the best lady chess players in the planet.
Why put someone who has no Olympiad experience in the toughest board assignment of all?
But that unbendable faith has now shown dividends after the 24-year-old Flora, Apayao native and Far Eastern University star came through anew in lifting the Philippines to a smashing 3.5-.5 win over Kyrgyzstan in the seventh round of the 46th World Chess Olympiad at the Silk Road International Exhibition Centre in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Wednesday night.
Ms. Sebastian delivered the match-sealing win over Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Nurai Sovetbekova that catapulted the Filipinos into a 26-country jam at 12th spot with 10 match points apiece and on the cusp of gatecrashing into the top 10 of this biennial event considered as the Olympics of chess.
Also coming through were Woman International Master Jan Jodilyn Fronda, who trounced WFM Aizhan Sezdbekova on board three, and Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna, who bested WFM Alexandra Samaganova on board two.
Ms. Fronda hiked her total to an impressive 5.5 points out of the possible six.
But none came stronger than what Ms. Sebastian had been doing on board one, where she had held her own with 4.5 points out of six.
“She is a very solid player and she has the ability. I just told her not to be nervous because that nervousness is pulling her back,” said Mr. Gonzales of Ms. Sebastian.
They now tackle the 23rd seed Romanians in the eighth-round as of this writing.
A win would propel the Filipinas straight to the top 10 while avenging their 1.5-2.5 defeat to the Romanians in the ninth round of the last staging in Budapest, Hungary two years ago.
It was all flowers for the team though as the men sputtered to 12-year-old GM Faustino Oro and Argentina, 1.5-2.5, that sent the former in a big pack of eight-pointers at 55th.
Mr. Oro delivered the decisive win on board one at the expense of IM Paulo Bersamina after GM Daniel Quizon, IM Jem Garcia and GM Darwin Laylo all halved the point against their respective rivals.
The GM Eugene Torre-captained squad was fighting El Salvador as of this writing. — Joey Villar