Frayna, Canino keep PHL Women’s Chess Championship lead

JANELLE MAE FRAYNA and Ruelle Canino pulled off a pair of impressive victories in the 11th round on Sunday night to keep their stranglehold of the lead in the Philippine National Women’s Chess Championship in Malolos, Bulacan.

Ms. Frayna sacrificed a queen for a pair of rooks and then leaned on her superb endgame technique to gain an extra pawn that she used to outlast Cherry Ann Mejia in 76 moves of a Slav duel.

For Ms. Canino, she engaged Olympiad teammates Shania Mendoza into tactical fireworks in carving out a 56-move triumph in their super-sharp Sicilian encounter that kept her tied with Ms. Frayna at the helm 8.5 points apiece.

And by the looks of it, Mses. Frayna and Canino have no plans of slowing down as they are expected to go for the title and, with four rounds remaining, one of the three slots to this September’s World Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

A full point off the pace at joint third in this tournament backed by host city Mayor Christian Natividad and the Philippine Sports Commission, was another pair of Olympiad mainstays in Jan Jodilyn Fronda and Bernadette Galas.

Ms. Fronda couldn’t find anything out of her timid Slav duel with Marie Antoinette San Diego and decided to split the point in 31 moves while Ms. Galas outplayed Queen Pamplona in a rook-and-pawn endgame in carving out a 54-move victory of a Center-Counter showdown.

Mhage Sebastian and Allaney Jia Doroy hurdled their respective foes to likewise stay in the Olympiad hunt with 6.5 and six points, respectively. — Joey Villar