Mendoza shares Asean chess lead

MANILA, Philippines – Womem’s FIDE Master Shania Mendoza pounced on Olympiad veteran Thi Nhu Y Hoang’s endgame blunder to hack out a victory in the second round then split the point with Nur Hisham Azman of Malaysia in the next to tie Viet GM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung in the lead in the third ASEAN JAPFA Chess Championships in Jakarta Thursday.

Mendoza and  Nguyen appeared headed to a standoff until the latter made a dubious move on the 45th, enabling the Filipina to gain a breakthrough for a late-game attack en route to victory in their Chigorin Defense game in women’s division.

With 2.5 points, Mendoza joined Nur in the lead.  Compatriot WIM Janelle Frayna is third with two points with Nguyen.

Frayna, 19, forced top seed Thi to a draw in 48 moves of their Slav encounter in the second round then dismantled local bet Amanda Fitriyani in 39 moves of a Ruy Lopez-Berlin.

WIM Bernadette Galas bowed to Nguyen Thi in the third round after dominating Shanti Nur Abidah of Indonesia in 60 moves of a Center Counter in the second round. She has 1.5 points.

In men’s play, IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia settled for a pair of draws against FM Anh Khoi Nguyen of Vietnam and IM Cuhendi Winshand Sean of Indonesia for joint secondwith local bet Theolitus Taher Yoseph and Viet GM Dao Thien Hai with two points, half-a-point behind FM Li Tian Yeoh of Malaysia.

IM Paulo Bersamina and GM Darwin Laylo also stayed in the hunt with 1.5 points with the former halving the point with Yoseph and the latter drawing with FM Anh Khoi Nguyen.