A five-year-old prodigy from Alicia, Isabela and a 15-year-old lady from Iloilo averted a golden drought and delivered the only two titles for Team Philippines in the 24th ASEAN+ Age Group Chess Championships in Singapore.
Jodiel Chloe Banawa bucked a third-round defeat in topping the girls’ Under-6 division while Iana Angela Sotaridona resurrected from an opening round defeat in topping the girls U16 at the Tampines Hub.
Banawa, whose father and coach is International Master Joel Banawa, won all her last four outings including a seventh and final round triumph over fellow Filipina Rien Euri Villa to finish as solo champion with six points.
It made up for a disastrous queen blunder that led to a third-round setback to Indian Aditi Nambiar.
Good thing she clawed and fought her way back.
It was the same story for Sotaridona, who stumbled right out of the gate with a stinging opening-round loss to Singaporean Gobinath Akshara. She scored 6.5 points in the last eight rounds capped by a draw with Vietnamese Le Thai Hoang Anh and caught up with another Vietnam bet, top seed Woman FIDE Master Dang Le Xuan at the helm.
She then emerged with a higher tiebreaker than Dang to snatch the former’s biggest victory yet.