TEENAGE prodigy Ruelle Canino shocked Woman International Master Jan Jodilyn Fronda in 62 moves of an English Opening to snatch the title in the Philippine National Women’s Chess Championship dubbed “Battle of Women Masters” in Malolos, Bulacan over the weekend.
Needing a victory to win it all, Canino, 16, did just that, stopping Fronda, the 2019 national titlist, and stealing the crown with 8.5 points, the top purse worth P85,000, and the lone berth to the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Bangkok, Thailand this November.
It came with one of the three slots to the national team seeing action in the FIDE World Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary this September that the Cagayan de Oro wunderkind already secured the day before.
Canino snatched a pawn early and used it to create a two-pawn central passed pawn that forced her more experienced foe to give up. It was all Canino from there.
Fronda consoled herself with the fact that she made the Olympiad-bound squad while pocketing P52,000 for her runner-up finish with eight points in the event organized by the NCFP and backed by the PSC and POC.
Top seed Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna finished third with seven points after a 59-move triumph over Woman FIDE Master Cherry Ann Mejia in another English encounter.
She took home P40,000.
