Baku Women’s Olympiad
42nd Chess Olympiad (Women’s Section) Baku, Azerbaijan Sept. 1-14, 2016
Final Top Standings
(in tie-break order) 1. China ( bd01 GM Hou Yifan 2658 5.5/8, bd02 GM Ju Wenjun 2583 7.5/11, bd03 GM Zhao Xue 2522 3.5/6, bd04 WGM Tan Zhongyi 2475 9.0/11, bd05 IM Guo Qi 2417 5.5/8, 20 match points
2. Poland ( bd01 GM Monika Socko 2437 5.5/ 10, bd02 WGM Jolanta Zawadzka 2429 6.0/9, bd03 WGM Karina Szczepkowska- Horowska 2409 6.5/8, bd04 WGM Klaudia Kulon 2346 9.0/11, bd05 WIM Mariola Wozniak 2246 6.0/6, 17 match points
3. Ukraine ( bd01 GM Anna Muzychuk 2550 7.5/10, bd02 GM Mariya Muzychuk 2539 6.5/10, bd03 GM Natalia Zhukova 2475 5.0/9, bd04 GM Anna Ushenina 2457 6.5/9, IM Inna Gaponenko 2416 5.0/6, 17 match points
4-9. Russia, India, USA, Vietnam, Azerbaijan 1, Israel, 16 match points
10-18 Georgia, Iran, Lithuania, Serbia, France, Bulgaria, Hungary, Belarus, Cuba, 15 match points Total of 140 teams Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-tofinish with 30 seconds added after every move starting move 1.
The Chinese Men’s team were the defending champions in the Open Section of the 2016 Baku Olympiad but rather unceremoniously tumbled down to 13th place, and even that was a bit generous. After losing their matches to Ukraine, England and Hungary they suffered the indignity of wallowing in 33rd place and being matched against the 84th (!) seed Faroe Islands.
The Chinese Women’s team had no such problems. They were held to a draw by Vietnam in round 3 and Romania in round 6 but won all their other matches, including 2.5-1.5 victories against their main rivals Ukraine, USA, Poland and Russia.
How did the Philippines’ Women’s team do? Well they scored 13 match points and finished in 34th place.
Bd01 WIM (now WGM) Janelle Mae Frayna 2281 7.0/11 TPR 2409
Bd02 WIM Jan Jodilyn Fronda 2128 6.0/11 TPR 2268
Bd03 Christy Lamiel Bernales 2065 1.5/5 TPR 2087
Bd04 WIM Catherine Perena- Secopito 2119 7.0/10 TPR 2275
Bd05 WFM Shania Mae Mendoza 1965 4.5/7 TPR 2140
But I’m not so sad about this result – our Women’s team usually finishes between the 40th and 50th places and this 34th place is actually a bit of an improvement. The team we sent to Baku is a young team and can only get better. The two Mae’s, Janelle and Shania are college students in the Far Eastern University, Christy Bernales is enrolled in the University of the Philippines. Jan Jodilyn Fronda is from De La Salle University and just 22 years old. Catherine Perena- Secopito is the oldest in the team at 31 years of age. She is the chess coach of the UP Women’s team. The team can only get stronger.
Here in Baku our women’s team made history by defeating the 4th seeds and reigning Women’s world Team Champion Georgia by a score of 2.5-1.5. Georgia outrated them by an average of 330 points per board. To illustrate how big a gap that is, the percentage expectancy table shows that someone rated 330 points or higher is expected to score 88 wins to 12 losses in a match of 100 games. Can you imagine that? And the Philippine team, rather than be cowed into submission, grit their teeth and came out fighting with every ounce of strength they had, and WON. Really a fantastic effort.
Oh! By the way, before we continue, let me clear something up. Here are the chess titles given by FIDE and the minimum performance levels required:
International Grandmaster (GM) > 2500 International Master (IM) > 2400 Fide Master (FM) > 2300 Woman’s Grandmaster (WGM) > 2300 Woman’s International Master (WIM) > 2200 Woman’s FIDE Master (WFM) > 2100 As you can see, an International Master is actually supposed to be stronger than a Woman’s Grandmaster. Go figure. When WGM Wang Pin came to the Philippines in 1999 to play in the Equitable Card International Classic (this is the tournament where Bong Villamayor got his GM title) I found out that she already has accumulated six norms for the International Master title. This is more than enough – three norms is the minimum. So I asked her why she didn’t submit the norms to FIDE to get her title and her reply was that she thought that “Woman Grandmaster” sounded a lot more impressive than “International Master.” She had a point.
Janelle Mae Frayna was top board for the country. Board assignments are submitted by the respective team captains at the start of the Olympiad and, once given cannot be changed anymore. Janelle Mae therefore led the charge of our women players in each and every round. She played without rest and faced 11 titled players: four grandmasters (Nana Dzagnidze GEO, Harika Dronavalli IND, Hoang Thanh Trang HUN and Viktorija Cmilyte LTU), two international masters (Davaademberel Nomin-Erdene MGL and Olga Zimina ITA), two WIM’s (Sabrina Latreche ALG and Alejandra Guerrero MEX), a FIDE Master (Zhou Qiyu CAN) and two Woman’s FIDE Masters (Ailen Oriana Mena Netherland Antilles and Hanne Goossens BEL).
Against this field she scored 7.0/11, more than sufficient for two WGM norms. This taken together with her previous two norms is more than enough to get the full title. Ms. Janelle Mae Frayna therefore becomes the Philippines’ first Woman International Grandmaster.
This is the crucial game which cleared the way for her to get the title. *** Frayna, Janelle Mae (2281) - Goossens, Hanne (2149) [A80] 42nd Olympiad 2016 Women Baku (8.1), 10.09.2016 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 h6 3.Bh4 g5 4.Bg3 Nf6 [4...f4? 5.e3 the bishop cannot be captured because of 5...fxg3 6.Qh5#]
5.e3 d6 6.h4 g4 7.Nc3 Nc6
I think this is a case of “having said A, you now have to say B”. 7...Nh5 8.Nge2 Bg7 9.Qd2 c6 looks a lot more logical.
8. h5 a6 9. d5 Ne5 10. Nge2 Bg7 11.Nd4 0–0 12.Bd3 Nxd3+ 13.Qxd3 Nh7 14.0–0–0 Qe8 15.Qc4 Qd8 16.f3 gxf3 17.gxf3 Bd7 18.Rdg1 Kh8 19.Nce2 Bb5 20.Qb3 Bxe2 21.Nxe2 Ng5 22.Nf4 Kh7 23.Bh4 Bf6
[23...Nxf3? 24.Rxg7+! Kxg7 25.Ne6+ wins the black queen]
24.Bxg5 Bxg5 25.Ne6 Qd7 26.f4 Bf6 27.Nxf8+ Rxf8 28.Qxb7 a5 29.Rg6 Qa4 30.a3 Qe4 31.Re1 Qf3 32.Rgg1 Qxh5 33.Qb3 Qh2 34.Rh1 Qg2 35.Qd3 Bg7 36.Rhg1 Qf3 37.Rgf1 Qg2 38.e4 Rb8
[38...fxe4 39.Rxe4 Qg6 40.Rxe7 Qxd3 41.cxd3 with an easy win]
39.e5 Qg4 40.Qc3 Rb5 41.Qd3 Rb8 42.Re3 Kh8 43.Rg3 Qh4 44.Rh3 Qg4 45.Qe3 Qg2 46.Rhf3 a4 47.Rg1 Qh2 48.Rh3 1-0 <D> Black’s queen is trapped. We gave Jan Jodilyn’s mighty upset of GM Bela Khotenashvili of Georgia last Sept. 8. Here is her win against WIM Fuentes of Mexico. *** Fronda, Jan Jodilyn (2128) - Fuentes Godoy, Lilia Ivonne (2142) [B30] 42nd Olympiad 2016 Women Baku (6.2), 08.09.2016 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.b3 Ne7 6.e5 Ng6 7.h4 f6 8.Bb2 Be7 9.d3 Going gung-ho with 9.h5 Nxe5 10.Nxe5 fxe5 11.Bxe5 0–0 is not advisable. If anything, it is White’s position which is overextended. Toth,A (2295)-Djokic,N (2310) Belgrade 2005 1/2 58. 9...fxe5 10.h5 Nh4 11.Nxe5 Bf6?!
Black’s original plan was 11...Nxg2+ 12. Kf1 Nf4 but now she realizes that Fronda has 13.h6! g6 14.Nxc6 discovering an attack on the h8 rook.
12.g3 Qc7 13.f4 d6 14.Rxh4 dxe5 15.Nd2 Bxh4 16.gxh4 exf4 17.h6 e5 18.Qe2 Qe7 19.Qxe5 Qxe5+ 20.Bxe5 Bg4 21.hxg7 Rg8 22.Ne4 Kf7 23.Kd2 h5 24.Rf1 Ke6 25.Bc3 f3 26.Ng5+ Kd7 27.Nxf3 Bxf3 28.Rxf3 Ke7
White has bishop and two pawns for the rook but in addition to that Black’s pawns are scattered and weak. She should be winning. 29.Rf5 Rad8 30.Rxh5 Rd5 31.Rh6
[31.Rh8 Kf7 does not accomplish anything]
31...Rf5 32.Rxc6 Kd7 33.Ra6 Rf2+ 34.Kc1 Rh2 35.Rxa7+ Ke6 36.Ra6+ Kf7 37.Rf6+ Ke7 38.Be5! Rxh4 39.Rf8 Rh1+ [39...Rxf8 40.Bd6+!]
40.Kb2 1-0
Very efficiently played. Bernales was not in good form during the Olympiad and Shania Mae Mendoza had to be pressed into the service. She responded well with 4 wins. Here is one of them. *** Mendoza, Shania Mae (1965) - Ouellet, Maili Jade (1992) [B43] 42nd Olympiad 2016 Women Baku (4.4), 05.09.2016
This game is a good advertisement for the kingside fianchetto against the Sicilian. Watch how White’s forces just effortlessly slides into a lethal kingside attack.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 b5 6.a3 Bb7 7.g3 Nf6 8.Bg2 Qc7 9.0–0 d6 10.Be3 Nbd7 11.Re1 Be7 12.f4 0–0 13.g4 Nb6 14.g5 Nfd7 15.Kh1 Nc4 16.Bc1 Rfd8 17.Qg4 Bf8 18.Rf1 Ndb6 19.Qg3 d5 20.e5 Rac8 21.Nce2 Nd7 22.b3 Ncb6 23.Bd2 g6
Now Shania will go Qg3–h4 then Rf1– f3–h3. 24.Qh4 Nc5 25.Rf3 Ne4 26.Rh3 h5
White will have to sacrifice something on h5.
27.Ba5 Rd7 28.Bf3 Ba8 29.Kg2 Rb8 30.Bxh5 gxh5 31.Qxh5 Bg7 32.Qh7+ Kf8 33.Bb4+ Re7
[ 33... Nc5 34. g6 ( Trying to win the knight backfires: 34.Rc3? Nc4! 35.bxc4 dxc4+ 36.Kg1 a5 Black’s counterattack is in full bloom) 34...Re7 35.gxf7 Kxf7 36.Qh5+ is similar to what happens in the game] 34.g6 Qd7 35.gxf7 Kxf7 36.Qh5+ Kg8 37.Qh7+ Kf7 38.f5 exf5 39.Bxe7?
White is still winning, but much simpler is 39.Nxf5.
39...Rh8 40.Qxh8 Bxh8 41.e6+ Qxe6 42.Rh7+ Kg6 43.Nf4+ Kxh7 44.Nfxe6 Nc8 45.Bh4 Ncd6 46.Rg1 Kg6 47.Kf3+ Kf7 48.Nd8+ 1–0
[48.Nd8+ Kf8 49.N4e6+ Ke8 50.Rg8+ Kd7 51.Rxh8]
To Janelle Mae, Christy, Jan Jodilyn, Catherine and Shania Mae: thank you ladies for fighting so hard for the Philippines.