Blemished

Erstwhile clean records of Chardine Cheradee Camacho and IM John Paul "The Pople" Gomez are gone.

Camacho and Gomez suffered their first setbacks in Round 8 to their respective opponent from the Dominican Republic and Netherlands, respectively.

Camacho's record got stalled at 6 points while Gomez remained with 5.5 points, with both players having played 8 games in a row.

So now, going into Round 9, only GM Wesley So parades an unblemished performance.

I personally feel that RP Men's Team performance in Round 8 served as a wakeup call for Philippine chess.

You see, we're almost blanked by Netherlands -- a federation which was BEATEN by VIETNAM!

In fact, VIETNAM held a draw with China -- a federation which DEFEATED the Philippines.

Round 8 was just fine for RP's Women Team. At least it was a draw. The painful thing, however, was that Camacho tasted her first (and hopefully last) loss.