By Lynde Salgados
Correspondent

ARENA Grandmaster Henry Roger Lopez led the Philippine Paralympic team in a thrilling escape to snatch the bronze in the 4th World Chess Championship for people with disabilities on Saturday night.

Along with Fide Master Sander Severino and Darry Bernardo, the Filipinos scored just 2 points on four boards to hike their total to 25.5 points.

Luckily, it was just enough to nip late-surging Cuba (25) by half a point or a point ahead of penultimate round overtaker India (24) in the battle for the third-place honor.

With Armenia's Fide Master Sargis Sargissyan taking the individual crown via a spectacular eight wins and a draw (8.5 pts) in nine rounds, the powerhouse Poland and Russia took pride in winning the gold and silver in the team competition with an aggregate of 29.5 and 28.5 points, respectively.

However, the organizing international chess federation has yet to give the final official results in individual and team ranking of the 10-day event that drew 246 participants from more or less 50 Fide-affiliated chess countries around the globe.

“The results are just based on the computation of our Para team’s final unofficial tally. The organizing Fide might finalize it on Tuesday after some verification from the fair play panel before the virtual awarding ceremony on Wednesday,” said Lopez who delivered the haymaker by ensuring the only entire point for the Filipinos in the ninth and final round.

Playing on board nine in a “go or bust” mood, Lopez countered the white-handling Tserenjav Tumenbatar’s introductory e4 with the sharp Sicilian Najdorf-Sozin Variation that baffled his Mongolian foe in the middlegame.

Tumenbatar’s Nde2 blunder on move 32 allowed Lopez’s Knight to penetrate on g4 that opened the floodgates of blistering assault and multiple threats, leading to resignation six moves later.

“I was actually preparing for Najdorf’s Bg5 line, but I’m also familiar with the attacking ideas behind the other variation that arises in our match,” the 40-year-old Panabo, Davao del Norte pride Lopez said.

After Lopez’s quick win on the heels of a disastrous eight-round where they could only muster four draws and one loss, the other three Filipinos were left to decide the PH team's fate in the final round.

While Severino of Silay, Negros Occidental had no intention of risking his position to halve the points with Tatiana Bernholz Flores of Spain in just 19 pushes of the Semi-Slav Moscow Variation, both Rom of Danao, Cebu City, and Bernardo of Angeles City, Pampanga was in fighting forms.

But Rom, trying to unleash anew his favorite Sicilian Grand Prix Attack with white, got ambushed by the well-prepared Polish FM Marcin Molenda in a marathon 75-move tussle that eventually dashed his hope for a top-10 finish.

Raising his total to eight points, Molenda went on to cop the silver with Russian FM Stanislav Babarykin pocketing the bronze after edging five other 7.5 pointers (Mongolia’s Dashtseren Ganbat, Russian FM Ilia Lipilin, Cuban FM Carlis Despaigne Larduet, Polish IM Jacek Stachanczyk, and Italy's Antonio Varvaglione) in the Bucholz tiebreaker.

Meanwhile, the 19-year-old and partially blind Bernardo tried his darndest best against another Polander Szymon Kasperczyk but ended in a book-draw endgame of King opposition on the a-file corner in a Sicilian Rossolimo struggle that lasted for 70 moves.

Another draw by the completely blind Rodolfo Sarmiento of Tagaytay City on board 44 against Janco Gjorgjevski of Macedonia was “not counted” as only the output on the top four boards for each team will be carried out in determining the team ranking.

“We’re still lucky with those two draws from Severino and Bernardo to complement Lopez’s crucial victory that got us a bronze, though it's still up for Fide to announce the final official results,” said the Filipinos’ coach National Master James Infiesto.

Lopez’s brilliancy also made him the highest Filipino finisher with seven points in the company of the top-seeded Polish Grandmaster Marcin Tazbir and five others, sharing 9th to 15 spots.

Rom (6.5 pt), Severino (six pt), Bernardo (six pt), and Sarmiento (five pt) landed at 20th, 34th, 39th, and 97th places, in that order, after the tiebreaker.