OZAMIZ—Janelle Mae Frayna asserted her full might on Mongolian Batpelden Buyankhishig in hammering out a 38-move win of a Reti duel to stay in title contention after five rounds of the 6th ASEAN Individual Chess Championships-Gov. Henry Oaminal Cup at the Misamis Occidental Resort and Aquamarine Park here.
The country’s first only Woman Grandmaster to date did not hold back against her 13-year-old foe as soon as she gained that critical spatial edge and launched that kingside attack that netted her a knight and eventually her fourth point.
That catapulted the Army woman from Bicol into No. 2 with fellow WGMs Nguyen Thi Mai Hung and Hoang Thi Bao Tram of Vietnam, who opted to preserve their energy and settled for a quick, 18-move draw of a London System.
It also pushed Frayna half a point behind a pace-setting IM Evgenija Ovod of Russia, who decimated Vietnamese WGM Nguyen Thi Thanh An’s Caro-Kann Defense in 42 moves.
“I had an advantage early and grabbed the opportunity when I saw one,” said the 28-year-old Frayna, who was batting Hoang in the sixth round at press time.
Chasing the big guns was another local bet in Ruelle Canino, who held top seed Anna Zhurova of Russia in 41 moves of a razor-sharp Nimzo-Indian encounter to hike her total to 3.5 points.
That put the reigning national champion from Cagayan de Oro into a tie for No. 5 with Indonesian WIM Laysa Latifah and another Russian Ekaterina Smirnova while bolstering her bid on snaring the crown and the title she had longed dream of—WGM.
Four Filipinos spearheaded by Pau Bersamina and Christian Gian Karlo Arca breathed life to their GM bids by zooming half a point behind co-leaders IM Munkhdalai Amilal of Mongolia and IM V S Raahul of India.
Bersamina pulverized Vietnamese FM Dinh Nho Kiet’s porous Sicilian Defense in just 25 moves while the Zamboanga City-based Arca slew GM Darwin Laylo in 57 moves of a Reti to jump to a six-man logjam at No. 3 with 3.5 points each.
It included Filipinos IMs Kim Steven Yap and Jem Garcia, who drew in 27 moves of a Scotch.
