The Philippines finished strongly as it started, beating Myanmar, 4.5-1.5, in the 12th and final round to rule the first “RP-Myanmar Dual Match” chess tournament at the Lake Garden Hotel over the weekend.

Overall, the Filipinos finished the tough, 12-round tournament with 46.5 points against the Burmese’s 25.5 points.

Except in the 11th and penultimate round, the Filipinos dominated all rounds.
Myanmar averted a shutout by edging the Philippines, 3.5-2.5, in the 11 th round thanks to the lone victory by FM Kyaw Lin Naing over Andador. All five other matches were agreed drawn.

Nolte emerged as the Filipinos’ leading scorer with 10 points on eight wins and four draws.

Gonzales was a close second with nine points on six wins and six draws, while Barbosa was third with eight points on six wins, four draws and two losses.

Other Filipino scorers were Andador with 7.5 points on six wins, three draws and three losses; Dino Ballecer with 6.5 points on two wins, nine draws and one loss; and Reggire Olay with 5.5 points on two wins, seven draws and three losses.

GM Win Lay Zaw, at 45 the most senior member of the six-man Myanmar team, leads the way with seven points on four wins, six draws and two losses. IM Aung Aung finished with five points on two wins, six draws and four losses. IM Zaw Htun Wynn, the highest-placed Burrmese player in the recent Subic Open, has 4.5 points two wins, five draws and five losses.

The other Burmese players were: IM Oo Kyaw Nay, 3.5 points ( 0-7-5 win-draw-loss); FM Kyaw Lin Naing, 3.5 points ( 1-5-6 win-draw-loss) ; and FM Kyaw Soe Kyaw, two points ( 0-4-8 win-draw-loss).

May 26 - 31, 2008, Tagaytay City, The Philippines - Myanmar 46.5-25.5

See detailed results on NCF Philippines site (no games available)

Statistical note: as expected, Myanmar players performed much worse than Elo predictions. Given Myanmar's average Elo was 2496 compared to Filipino 2353, predicted result of 72 game match was ca. 50-22 in favour of Myanmar. The 25.5-46.5 loss rates them at 2243, well 250 Elo points below nominal level.

by SlightlyAmused&VeryCurious @ 07 Jun 2008 06:09 am

I'd very much like to play through these games! I've read on forums how Burmese masters have inflated ratings, how FIDE deducted 100 ELO pts from all Burmese players with a rating over 2500(?), and such. Too bad they've been relatively dormant on the international level for quite a long time, and the games i dug from databases date back to about the year 2004 or before (my searches might not have been very thorough, as I only went after titled players. I'd like their recent games so I can scrutinize and compare their performance to that of their (ELO-wise) "lesser" opponents. :P