INTERNATIONAL Master Jan Emmanuel Garcia and Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna ruled the men’s and women’s divisions of the rapid event of the Philippine team selection tournament for the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games that ended last Sunday at the PACE Center in Quezon City.
In the last match of their six-game finals series, Garcia outplayed veteran Grandmaster Darwin Laylo in 51 moves of an English Opening-Anglo-Indian Defense to finish with four points to his rival’s two.
Playing black, Frayna whipped Woman International Master Marie Antoinette San Diego in 34 moves of a Sicilian Defense to post a 3.5-1.5 victory in the three-day tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines under the supervision of NCFP executive director and PACE owner GM Jayson Gonzales.
Witnessing the event was GM and national coach Eugene Torre.
Laylo took the silver medal while International Masters Daniel Quizon and Paulo Bersamina settled for the bronze each. San Diego settled for the silver and WIM Bernadette Galas and Woman FIDE Master Cherry Ann Mejia each had a bronze medal in the distaff side.
Quizon and Garcia finished 1-2 in the men’s blitz event with Laylo and Bersamina getting a bronze apiece. Frayna and San Diego also emerged as the champion and runner-up, respectively, in the women’s blitz even with WIMs Shaina Mae Mendoza and Jan Jodilyn Fronda also securing a bronze each.
The champion and runner-up in the rapid and blitz event in the men’s and women’s divisions earned automatic spot in the national chess team that will compete in the Vietnam Games in May.
A total of 10 gold medals will be up for grabs in the Vietnam SEA Games chess competitions that will be held in the Vietnamese coastal province of Quang Ninh, the home of Halong Bay, a Unesco World Heritage site, 153 kilometers east of the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.
At stake in the event are gold medals in the men’s and women’s individual standard, rapid and blitz events and the men’s and women’s team rapid and blitz competitions.
The Filipinos try to bounce back from their miserable showing in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held in the country where they were shut out of medal honors, with Garcia the only saving grace by clinching a gold medal in the demo sport of online chess.
