WGM Frayna seizes lead with 36-move King’s Indian win
Top seed Janelle Mae Frayna hammered out a 36-move win of a King’s Indian duel over Marian Calimbo on Wednesday to leapfrog to the top after the eighth round of the 2021 Philippine National Women’s Chess Championships at Pace Academy in Quezon City.
The 24-year-old Frayna, the country’s first and only Woman Grandmaster (WGM), went straight for Calimbo’s king and ended up capturing the defense piece by piece in forcing the latter’s resignation.
The result catapulted the Army recruit from Bicol to solo No. 1 with six points as erstwhile coleader Jan Jodilyn Fronda, the third seed, split the point with second seed Shania Mae Mendoza via repetition in 16 moves of a Ruy Lopez to slip to second with 5.5 points.
Mendoza was stranded at No. 3 alongside WGM candidate Kylen Joy Mordido and Marie Antoinette San Diego with five points each.
Mordido bounced back from her seventh-round defeat at the hands of Lexie Grace Hernandez last Tuesday by edging Bernadette Galas in 38 moves of a Sicilian encounter while San Diego dumped Francois Magpily in 30 moves of yet another Sicilian battle.
But it was Frayna who shone the brightest as she has now hiked her win streak after absorbing a heartbreaking loss to child prodigy Ruelle Canino in the opening round on Saturday.
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