‘Engine cheating’ from other country relegates PH to 4th in world chess championship

The Philippine Paralympic team’s virtual bronze finish in team competition of the 4th World Chess Championship went for naught after the tournament’s late discovery of an engine cheater.

After a review of the final results, a cheating incident was discovered, resulting in the disqualification of one player from Vietnam in favor of Cuba.

Cuba then overtook the Philippines by only half a point, 26 to 25.5 points, in the fight for the team bronze or the third-place honor.

“Sayang. ‘Mi nakalaban pala sila na na-DQ kaya’t nakahabol pa (It’s too bad for us that the Cuba team encountered a player that was disqualified after a thorough review, allowing them to overtake us),” FIDE Master Sander Severino, the reigning International Physically Disabled Chess Association champion, told Rappler on Saturday, November 20. 

Although the nine-round Swiss event was convened in an individual format, the organizers made it clear that the points of the four best players from each country would be combined as the basis for team rankings.

Powerhouse Poland dominated with 29.5 for the gold, ahead of Russia (28.5), which took the silver.

The individual gold went to Armenian Sargis Sargissyan with 8.5 stripes out of a possible nine, besting a field of 249 players from 44 countries in the 10-day battle held virtually for the first time. 

“Vietnam player ang nag-cheat. So, na-fourth na lang ‘ta officially kay ang usa nga nakalaban sa Cuba nag engine mao nag plus one pa sila sa final standings (We were relegated to fourth after one of Cuba’s opponents from Vietnam was found to be cheating with the use of an engine),” clarified Arena Grandmaster Henry Roger Lopez, who delivered the only full point for the Philippines in the final round to become the team’s best scorer at 7 points.

His output also put Lopez in the company of the top-seeded Polish Grandmaster Marcin Tazbir and five others, sharing the 9th to 15th spots.

The other Filipinos, Jasper Rom (6.5 points), Severino (6), Darry Bernardo (6), and Rodolfo Sarmiento (5) landed at 20th, 34th, 39th, and 97th places, respectively, after the tiebreaker.

“It’s really disheartening for us to miss the bronze by only half a point. But I feel satisfied with my performance, having given my best and hoping to improve further next time,” Lopez told Rappler.

The cast of Cuba, which produced the great classical world champion Jose Raul Capablanca from 1921 to 1927, was comprised of Carlos Larduet (7.5), Raúl Leonardo Lavigne (7), Alberto Interián (6), and Idalis Batista (5.5). – Rappler.com