WGM Frayna beats Buyankhishig to remain in title hunt in ASEAN Individual Chess Championships – BusinessWorld Online
JANELLE MAE FRAYNA flexed her muscle against youthful Mongolian Batpelden Buyankhishig and hacked out a masterful 38-move victory of Reti encounter to remain in the title hunt in the 6th ASEAN Individual Chess Championships-Gov. Henry Oaminal Cup at the Misamis Occidental Resort and Aquamarine Park in Ozamiz.
The country’s one and only Woman Grandmaster (WGM) was quick to the draw, seizing the edge and the initiative in unleashing a vicious kingside attack that saw her sacrificing a queen to win a piece.
It was the enlisted Army personnel’s fourth point, half a point behind solo No. 1 IM Evgenija Ovod of Russia, who crushed Vietnamese WGM Nguyen Thi Thanh An’s Caro-Kann Defense in 42 moves.
Ms. Frayna also caught up with fellow WGMs Nguyen Thi Mai Hung and Hoang Thi Bao Tram of Vietnam, who decided to play it safe and split the point in 18 moves of a quiet London duel.
“When I saw the winning queen sacrifice, I didn’t hesitate and went for it because I knew I would be a piece up,” said the 28-year-old Albay native.
Trailing Ms. Frayna by half a point was her student, 17-year-old Ruelle Canino, who eked out an upset draw with top seed Anna Zhurova of Russia in 41 moves of a super-sharp Nimzo-Indian to improve to 3.5 points.
It propelled the Cagayan de Oro lass into a tie for No. 5 with Indonesian WIM Laysa Latifah and another Russian Ekaterina Smirnova while bolstering her WGM campaign.
Pau Bersamina and Christian Gian Karlo Arca, pumped their respective GM aspirations by leapfrogging into No. 3 and a point behind co-leaders IM Munkhdalai Amilal of Mongolia and IM V S Raahul of India.
Mr. Bersamina destroyed Vietnamese FM Dinh Nho Kiet’s Sicilian in 25 moves while the Zamboanga City-based Mr. Arca downed GM Darwin Laylo in 57 of a Reti to leapfrog to a six-player logjam at No. 3 with 3.5 points apiece.
It included Filipinos IMs Kim Steven Yap and Jem Garcia, who halved the point in 27 moves of a Scotch. — Joey Villar