1st WMSG quick review for Philippine Chess Team: Paragua and Sadorra, impressive

Because of time constraint, I wasn't able to post something on this blog regarding the progress of our chess team competing in Beijing particularly the latter part of the tournament where the mixed and pair blitz/rapid category was being held. In spite of this, I never fail to follow the progress of our team but I'm pretty sure that there are blogs or sites out there that regularly cover this event for our Filipino chess fans. Anyway, here's a quick review. We never won a single medal :) We are very close of doing so, not once but twice. I've already blog about Mark Paragua's 4th place finished in the Individual blitz event. For detail stories, check my previous post over HERE. Then we even tie for second place in the preliminary phase of the men's rapid before we eventually collapses in the final rounds. IM Julio Catalino Sadorra seems unstoppable in the early rounds. He even had an impressive five game winning streak, defeating two Grandmasters and three International Masters in the process and with an average of 3000+ rating performance to carry the hopes alive for the team before bowing to a tough Grandmaster from Ukraine in the seventh round. In a rapid tournament in Malaysia last August led by GM Darwin Laylo, Sadorra also show good form in the rapid discipline by bringing home the title. You can read the rest of these stories from my previous post over HERE . Please remember that the 1st WMSG chess category is one of the toughest ever held in Asia with lots of grandmasters with 2600 and above ratings seeing action. Below is the complete list of players that represent the country in Beijing:

Philippine Team Members

Mens team:

GM MARK PARAGUA (2526)
IM ROLANDO NOLTE (2489)
IM JULIO CATALINO SADORRA (2431)
IM CHITO GARMA (still clarifying)
NM LEONARDO CARLOS (still clarifying)

Womens Team

SHERILY CUA
CRISTINE ROSE MARIANO
KIMBERLY JANE CUNANAN
JAN JODILYN FRONDA
RIDA JANE YOUNG

Next stop for our Pinoy woodpushers is the World Youth Chess Championship in Vung Tau Vietnam on Ocober 20 then we're all heading to Dresden for the Chess Olympiad on November.