W

oman Grandmaster Medina Warda Aulia accomplished her mission to win a duel against Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna of the Philippines at the 2018 Japfa Chess Festival after their fourth round match ended in a draw on Friday.

Medina previously collected 2.5 points after securing two wins and a draw in the previous three rounds, while Frayna collected 0.5 points.

Medina, 21, said she made a blunder in the middle of Friday’s match despite leading, adding that she made the mistake in her 25th step.

“I had the opportunity to secure victory. But I was a little bit nervous despite being in control. I could not apply an effective [strategy],” she told journalists after the match.

Having secured victory, Medina said she would try to be more relaxed in Saturday’s match but still wanted to win.

“[From this battle], I learned that I have to be more patient and careful when calculating [the steps]. I still made some mistakes,” she added.

Meanwhile, Frayna said she had not been in a good position to win despite exceeding her opponent in terms of the number of pawns captured in Friday’s match.

Medina now has Elo rating of 2366, exceeding Frayna’s 2241.

Frayna is the first chess player in her country to hold the Woman Grandmaster title.

Medina is the second Indonesian after Irene Kharisma Sukandar to hold the title. The University of Indonesia student achieved the honor at age 16 in 2013.

Her introduction to chess started when she was still very young. She said she found chess interesting because it was similar to her favorite Barbie doll.

“In chess, there is a king and queen and it is same with Barbie,” she added.

“[I remember] it was the time when my father was preparing for a chess competition in his office. And he asked me, ‘Do you want to learn the game?’ and from then on I started focusing on chess.”

She then joined Utut Adianto chess school to hone her skills, admitting that she had found it difficult to manage her time between chess and school.

“Chess is interesting as it does not require any physical activity. And we can wear any costume we want while playing. We can have a quite long career,” she said.

Meanwhile, on the fourth day of the festival, International Master Novendra Priasmoro led the competition in the men’s senior category, followed by FIDE Master Arif Abdul Hafiz and FIDE Master Hamdani Rudin.

In the women’s senior category, Evi Yuliana of East Kalimantan collected six points after the seventh round and tops the current standings.