JANELLE Mae Frayna and the Philippine women’s chess team miss their chances for a top-10 finish following a 1-3 loss to Israel in the ninth round of the 46th World Chess Olympiad at the Silk Road International Exhibition Centre in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Friday.
PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of NCFP
The Philippine women’s team missed out on another upset draw and succumbed to 22nd seed Israel, 1-3, in the ninth round Friday that derailed its bid for a potential top-10 finish in the 46th World Chess Olympiad at the Silk Road International Exhibition Centre in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna and Woman International Master Ruelle Canino both drew their matches with WIM Noga Orian and IM Masha Klinova on boards two and three, respectively, while WIM Jan Jodilyn Fronda-Grafil was first to stumble against WGM Viktoria Chernyak on board four.
Mhage Sebastian also lost on board one to IM Marsel Efroimski, but she was winning on that one before getting lost with errant pawn exchanges and passive and repetitive knight moves that allowed the latter to escape and even snatch the win.
Had Sebastian won, the Filipinas, whose trip is being bankrolled by the Philippine Sports Commission, would have snared a second straight draw after also splitting their match with the 23rd-ranked Romanians the round before and put them in prime position for a chance at a breakthrough top 10 finish.
It just wasn’t meant to be, though.
The defeat sent the Filipinas sputtering into a 17-nation tie for 39th spot with 11 match points apiece and would need to sweep their remaining two matches, including this one versus the Costa Ricans in the 10th and penultimate round at press time, to duplicate, if not eclipse, their Category B gold medal finish in the last edition in Budapest, Hungary two years back.
