Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Philippines in the 2012 World Chess Olympiad

While most Filipino sports fan are on looking for news about the Azkals and basketball, a Philippine team is currently beating the world's top teams in .... Chess. Maybe some of our officials, do not consider this as a sport but at least the team led by veteran Eugene Torre is showing that Filipinos can be world beaters.  It is funny though very few of our local media outlets write about the exploits of our chess grandmasters. Maybe, they will start writing about them tomorrow as the Philippines just beat 11th seeded England to remain the top 10 in this year's Olympiad.   The Olympiad is only held every two years and our country is seeded 35th in this year's edition.  In which sport do we have a Philippine team that is in top 40 of world rankings?  Only Chess, not basketball and definitely not football.  While pundits are happy with our 150th ranking in FIFA, nobody is even bothering to write about out top 10 placing in the Olympiad after Round 7. Many are disappointed with the 0-0 result of the Azkals against Cambodia, only few enthusiasts know that the Pinoys won 3-1 over England in the Olympiad.  Will we just bask in mediocrity? When will we start giving credit and funds to the right endeavor? ;)