Barcenilla, Salvador RP's new grandmasters

KHANTY-MANSIYSK, RUSSIA – Even before the 11th and final round of the 39th World Chess Olympiad, the Philippines received the good news of having two new grandmasters in its fold -- Rogelio Barcenilla, Jr. and Roland Salvador. Barcenilla, now based in Arizona, Texas with his family, and Salvador, now living in Italy, were officially conferred the elusive GM titles during the 81st FIDE Congress held at the Complex Arena Ugra here. The two players received their long-overdue GM titles upon representation of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) , headed by president Prospero “Butch" Pichay and secretary-general Abraham “Bambol" Tolentino and FIDE representative Toti Abundo.. “We’re happy to have our two new GMs. They really deserved the title," said PIchay on the eve of the Philippines’ 11th and final-round match against No. 48 seed Estonia on Sunday The Philippines-Estonia match will decide the final rankings of the two countries. GM Wesley So will play top board for the 37th-seeded Filipinos for the 10th time in 11 rounds against GM Kaido Kulaots (ELO 2592). GM John Paul Gomez faces GM Meelis Kanep (ELO 2532), GM Darwin Laylo battles IM Olav Sepp (ELO 2485) and IM Richard Bitoon meets IM Aleksandr Volodin (ELO 2433) in the other crucial three matches. GM Eugene Torre, who played in record 20th Olympiad in 40 years from 1970 to 2010, took a rest. The 58-year-old Filipino hero finished with 4.5 points on three wins, three draws and one loss. Overall, the Filipinos are now tied for tie for 31st to 44th places with 12 points on five wins, two draws and three losses. After the Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak, the Filipinos are in 31st place, or six notches higher than their starting rank of 37th place. A victory by the Filipinos, however, will enable them to barge into the Top 30 and improve their 46th-place finish in the Dresden Olympiad two years ago. Barcenilla earned his third and last GM title by virtue of his performance in the 2009 Copper State international chess championship where he collected seven points in 10 games. A former Asian junior champion, Barcenilla finished runner-up to GM Timur Gareev of Uzbekistan. "I would like to thank Cong Pichay and others who continued supporting me," said Barcenilla in an e-mail from Arizona. "I’m looking forward to playing in big tournaments in the coutnry again. I just have to fix my schedules ahead of time." Salvador, a native of San Jose, Del Monte, Bulacan, earned his third and final GM result during the 11th International Chess Tournament Fermo-Porto San Giorgio held last Aug. 21-29 in Fermo, Italy. Salvador, a former top player of Rizal Technological University under president Dr. Jose Q. Macaballug and head coach Olympian NM Mauro Yasay in the mid-90s, was declared winner based on the highest tiebreak score. - RCJ, GMANews.TV