ANTOINETTE San Diego sent 13-year-old wunderkind Ruelle Canino back to earth with a 52-move win in their King’s Indian Defense duel to seize a share of the lead with three others after two rounds of the 2021 Philippine Women’s Chess Championship at the PACE building in Quezon City yesterday.
San Diego, an Olympiad veteran, pounced on an opening blunder by Canino to emerge a piece up and nursed the advantage until the end to extract the full point and forge a four-way logjam on top with Kylen Joy Mordido, Shania Mae Mendoza and Jan Jodilyn Fronda with 1.5 points each.
Mordido and Fronda battled to a 34-move standoff in an English Opening while Mendoza turned back Lexie Grace Hernandez in 66 moves of a Queen’s Pawn opening.
It was a heartbreaking defeat for Canino, who was hoping to follow up her shock 96-move triumph over top seed and the country’s first and only Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna in the first round Saturday night.
Frayna bounced back from that stinging defeat by outlasting fellow national team mainstay Bernadette Galas in 57 moves of a French encounter in the event staking P50,000 to the champion and a slot to next year’s Hanoi Southeast Asian Games.
