Garcia, Mendoza top Asean chess rivals, share lead

MANILA, Philippines - International Master Jan Emmanuel Garcia and WIM Janelle Mae Mendoza hurdled their rivals to share the early lead in their respective divisions at the start of the third ASEAN JAPFA Chess Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia yesterday.

Garcia pulled through in a long, hard fought game, outlasting Olympian IM Van Huy Nguyen of Vietnam in their English Opening duel that took more than four hours. Nguyen squirmed in time trouble and missed several drawing lines.

Garcia pounced on his rival’s slight miscues and came through with strong positional play en route to victory.

GM Darwin Laylo and IM Paulo Bersamina drew their Modern Defense game.

Frayna, meanwhile, beat WFM Shanti Nur Abidah of Indonesia with the black pieces, exploiting her rival’s blunder in the early going of their Italian game, netting a pawn which she used as a springboard to notch the victory.

WFM Shanai Mae Mendoza, the 2015 World Schools champion, turned a losing stand into a winning attack, repulsing Olympiad veteran WFM Dewi A.A. Citra, also of Indonesia, in their Benoni Defense encounter.

Citra actually seized the slight advantage after Mendoza struggled under time pressure but the Indonesian overlooked a winning line, which the Filipina bet parlayed into a victory.

But WIM Bernadette Galas failed to cash in on a slight advantage in their Sicilian Rossolimo variation and settled for a draw with WIM Chelsie Monica Sihite, also a member of Indonesian Olympic women’s team.