Frayna beats Hungrarian foe to keep chess World Cup bid alive

MANILA, Philippines – Janelle Mae Frayna found an answer to fancied Hungarian rival Hoang Tranh Trang’s favorite Dutch Defense and hammered out a masterful 41-move victory Tuesday night to resuscitate her FIDE Women’s World Cup 2021 campaign in Sochi, Russia.

The 24-year-old Frayna pounced on an opening blunder by the 41-year-old Hoang, a former Asian and European who migrated to Budapest from Hanoi, Vietnam when she was 10 years old, to fuel a vicious attack she shifted from queenside to kingside.

When it was over, the country’s first and only Woman Grandmaster trapped Hoang’s queen that forced the latter to resign.

It was a win that knotted their showdown to one game apiece after Frayna blew a drawn duel to a heartbreaking setback to Hoang the day before.

“Honestly, in round one, I was really mad at myself for spoiling an equal endgame. I thought I could create a breakthrough in the pawn ending,” said Frayna on her Facebook account.

“That was the main reason I played the losing move (bishop’s knight capture),” she added.

Frayna and Hoang will play a two-game tiebreaker using a time control of 25 minutes with a 10-second increment per move at press time with the winner advancing to the second round against Russian Alisa Galliamova, who drew an opening round bye.

Frayna was also the last Filipino standing after International Masters Daniel Quizon, Paul Bersamina and Michael Concio, Jr. were all shown the door after loses to Canada’s Evgeny Bareev, .5-1.5, and India’s Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, .5-1.5, and Chithambaram Aravindh, 0-2, respectively.

Frayna, who was temporarily plucked out from her Army training at Camp O’Donnel in Capas, Tarlac to prepare for this event, also avenged her loss to Hoang in the 2018 Batumi Olympiad where she lost via the same Dutch Defense.