Ateneo de Manila University standout Lexie Grace Hernandez came out of nowhere to snatch the girls crown of the Philippine National Juniors Chess Championships at the Philippine Academy for Chess Excellence in Quezon City yesterday.

Unfazed by a painful opening-round defeat, the 19-year-old Interdisciplinary Studies student went on a rampage as she scored 5.5 points out of her last six outings including a 46-move, final-round win over Jersey Marticio of a Caro-kann duel.

It sent the former Eastern Asia Youth standard and blitz gold winner into a tie for first with Daren dela Cruz, who bested Karol Jozef de Guia, with 5.5 points each but went on snaring the title due to a better tiebreaker, 25-21.5.

The feat earned the Candaba, Pampanga native the right to represent the country in the World Juniors meet slated in Petrovac, Montenegro in February next year plus the P15,000 prize.

“Actually, I didn’t expect it because there are a lot of good players and my mindset is to just give my best regardless of the result,” Hernandez said.