WOMAN Grandmaster (WGM) Janelle Mae Frayna leads the Philippine delegation at the 7th ASEAN+ Individual Chess Championships starting on Tuesday in Sinacaban, Misamis Occidental.
The country’s first and only WGM to date will face a strong international challenge led by International Master (IM) and defending champion Evgenija Ovod of Russia and WGMs Nguyen Thi Mai Hung and Hoang Thi Bao Tram of Vietnam, and Sharavdorj Oyungerel of Mongolia.
Also expected to be motivated to turn in strong performances are Filipinos seeking GM, IM, WGM and WIM norms — IMs Jem Garcia, Paulo Bersamina, Michael Concio, Jr., MJ Bacojo and Christian Gian Karlo Arca and FIDE Master (FM) Alekhine Nouri in the open section and Ruelle Canino, Jan Jodilyn Fronda, Shania Mae Mendoza and Mhage Sebastian on the women’s side.
The Open division of this nine-round tournament attracted a total of 39 entries from 24 nations including four GMs in Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam, Dashzegve Sharavdorj of Mongolia, Daniel Quizon and Darwin Laylo, 24 IMs including top seed Nguyen Quoc Hy of Vietnam and seven FMs.
The women’s side has 33 entries. Apart from the aforementioned masters, the field includes top-ranked WIM Bordoloi Pratitee of India and 10 WFMs.
More GMs are joining in the Misamis Occidental Philippine International Chess Championships with seven GMs including Evgeny Romanov of Macedonia, Chakraborty Mayank, N R Vignesh and Nikhil Shyaam P of India seeing action in a nine-round meet slated Nov. 10 to 17.
From Misamis Occidental, the field heads to Quezon City for the AQ Prime International Open Chess Championship on Nov. 17-25. — Joey Villar