MANILA, Philippines – Janelle Mae Frayna put up a gallant stand against Hungarian Hoang Tranh Trang but fell short in the end to kiss her FIDE Women’s World Cup 2021 campaign goodbye in Sochi, Russia Tuesday night.
The country’s first and only player to have acquired a Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title managed to stretch her two-game playoff tiebreaker to four but ended up dropping a 1.5-2.5 defeat.
Frayna, an Army woman whose trip her is bankrolled by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP), could not summon the same brilliance that kept her in the match as she failed to convert on her slight positional edge and settled for a 53-move draw of their Dutch duel that sealed her fate and sent the fancied Hoang straight to the second round.
“I really thought I could convert my advantage in my second rapid game but I couldn’t spot the outright best moves. No excuses, but sayang talaga,” said Frayna in a Facebook post.
Twice, Frayna fought from 0-1 deficits including their two-game classical duel before coming through with wins to knot the count and stay alive.
On the third one when she went 0-1 down after a 63-move defeat in their Queen’s Pawn game, Frayna failed to come through when needed.
Frayna, however, will go home with heads unbowed as she showed she could be at par with a player of Hoang’s caliber as the latter was a former Asian and European champion.
Frayna was also the last Philippine bet eliminated as her countrymen, International Masters Paulo Bersamina, Daniel Quizon and Michael Concio, Jr. were all shown the door a day earlier.