JANELLE Mae Frayna halved the point with fellow former national champion Jan Jodilyn Fronda on Wednesday to remain unshakeable on top after four rounds of the Philippine National Women’s Chess Championships in Malolos City, Bulacan.
The 26-move truce of a Petroff Defense was a much-needed relief for the 29-year-old Army woman from Bicol after plodding and grinding out three straight wins that catapulted her straight to the top.
With the recent result, Frayna now has 3.5 points in this 15-round event dubbed “Battle of the Women’s Masters” and backed by host Mayor Christian Natividad and the PSC and closer to her hope of claiming one of the three slots to this September’s World Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
For Fronda, she stayed at second with three points alongside another Olympiad regular Bernadette Galas, who drew with Cherry Ann Mejia in 31 moves of an English duel.
Mejia stayed in the pack of 2.5-pointers at No. 4 that included reigning national girls juniors titlist Heart Padilla and defending champ Ruelle Canino.
Padilla unleashed a seldom used Rat Defense and pulled off an upset 13-move draw with a fancied Marie Antoinette San Diego while Canino zoomed back to contention with a 38-move win over Queen Pamplona of a Queen’s Indian encounter.
It was a second straight win for Canino, who recently sealed a Woman International Master title after her second-place finish in the ASEAN Individual Championship in Ozamis late last year.
The 18-year-old lass from Cagayan de Oro was held to just half a point in the first two rounds after blowing what could have been an easy win in a draw with Fronda in the opening round and getting the upset axe from unheralded Bonjoure Suyamin in the next.
