AFTER her opening-round loss to 13-year-old Woman National Master Ruelle ‘Tawing’ Canino from Cagayan de Oro, it seems there’s no stopping the country’s lone Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna from unleashing her full fury.
Handling white, the 24-year-old Frayna needed just 28 moves in the French defense to beat Woman National Master Mariel Rinoa Sadey and stay a full point ahead of the field going to the last two rounds of the 2021 Philippine National Women’s Chess Championship at the PACE building in Quezon City last Thursday.
Determined to inch closer for the title, Frayna immediately went for an all-out attack, culminating with a Rook sacrifice that forced Sadey’s resignation after seeing an inevitable mate coming with a Knight-backed Queen check on the seventh-rank.
The fired-up Frayna, who has now seven points, earlier smashed the King’s Indian defense of Marian Calimbo after only 36 pushes.
However, Frayna’s last two-round assignments will be a real test of might as she's up against the reigning champion Woman International Master Jan Jodilyn Fronda and the second-seed Woman Fide Master Shania Mae Mendoza.
WIM Kylene Joy Mordido downed WFM Allaney Jia Doroy in 45 moves of another King’s Indian defense to ensure a three-way logjam with Mendoza and Fronda at six points.
Mendoza defeated veteran Olympiad campaigner WIM Bernadette Galas in 43 moves of the Sicilian Rossolimo variation, while Fronda split the point with teen sensation Canino after a long 65-move London System tussle.
Other matches saw Francois Marie Magpily besting fellow WNM Lexie Grace Hernandez in 62 moves of another London System Opening, and Calimbo rebounding with a 34-move conquest of WIM Marie Antoinette San Diego of the London System’s Jobava variation.
Total cash prizes of P135,000 and a slot to next year’s Hanoi Southeast Asian Games are at stake in this 12-player round-robin affair with the champion getting P50,000 and the second and third placers out to receive P30,000 and P15,000, respectively, plus trophies.
