Philippine Sports News and Updates

MANILA, Philippines - John Paul Gomez walked up a significant level in his career by becoming the country's 10th Grandmaster.

But the Philippines fell a rung lower in the 38th World Chess Olympiad after it suffered another loss on Saturday in Dresden, Germany.

Gomez forced Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic to a draw in the ninth round Saturday, to earn an ELO rating of 2606 and make the mechanical-engineering student from De La Salle University the sixth Filipino GM in the last four years and the second this year after Dresden teammate Jayson Gonzales.

Countrymen Wesley So and Darwin Laylo, who reached GM status in 2007, also drew against their respective Czech opponents.

But the Filipinos dropped a 2.5-1.5 decision after GM Bong Villamayor, the RP team's most senior member, fell to GM David Navara (38 moves, Slav). It was Villamayor's fourth loss in seven matches.

So, who drew Zbynek Hracek (23 moves, Sicilian Alapin), remained the Nationals' only unbeaten player with three wins and five draws.

Gomez, drew Laznicka after 30 moves of a Queen's Gambit Declined, was the team's top scorer with 6.0 points (4-4-1, win-draw-loss).

Other Filipino GMs include: Mark Paragua (2004), Nelson Mariano (2004), Joey Antonio (1993), Rosendo Balinas (1976) and RP team nonplaying captain Eugene Torre (1974).

The Philippines, which placed 44th in the 2006 event held in Italy, stood at 64th to 80th places with 9.0 points. The Nationals face lowly Tunisia in the 10th and penultimate round on Sunday.

Points are tallied via the matchpoint system where a team victory is equal to 2.0 points, a draw 0.5 points and a loss 0.

In the men's standings, Israel was alone at the top after nine rounds with 16.0 points. Defending champion Armenia was tied with Ukraine behind Israel with 15.0 points.

Top-ranked Russia (13.0 points) was with eight others in joint seventh.

- GMANews.TV