Jemaicah Yap Mendoza settles for girls U14 bronze
JEMAICAH YAP MENDOZA blew her golden chance at glory, succumbing to Russian Polina Smirnova in 43 moves of a Slav Defense in the 11th and final round to settle for a bronze in the girls’ Under-14 division of the World Youth Chess Championships in Durres, Albania on Wednesday.
Ms. Mendoza, 14, faltered in the opening and just couldn’t extract her way out of a cramped position that allowed Ms. Smirnova to launch a vicious kingside attack that the former had to go an exchange down to prevent mate.
When it was over, the Russian had unstoppable passed pawns on both sides to seal the deal.
In the end, the Sta. Rosa, Laguna native finished third with 8.5 points and consoled herself with a bronze.
Ms. Smirnova wound up tied for first with Uzbekistan’s Rukiya Olimava, who trounced Russia’s Eliza Tereshchenko in the last round, but the latter took the gold with a superior tiebreaker.
Ironically, Ms. Mendoza defeated Ms. Olimova in the seventh round.
If there’s a silver lining, it was the fact that Ms. Mendoza gained a whopping 140.4 rating points that hiked her current rating from 1943 to 2083.4.
It also made her the fourth highest rated female chesser in the country today, behind only Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna (2246), Jan Jodily Fronda (2115) and Ruelle Canino (2110).
She also surpassed her coach, Olympiad veteran Shania Mae Mendoza, rated 2078 who was there in Durres to accompany her from the start. — Joey Villar
