Janelle Mae Frayna drew with second seed Grandmaster Alxandre Dgebuadze of Belgium in the ninth and final round to finish in the top 10 of the Brugse Meesters Chess 2017 in Brugge, Belgium Thursday night.
Frayna was actually winning but couldn’t sustain her momentum and eventually settling for a split, leaving her in a six-way logjam at eight place with 6.5 points.
After tiebreaks were applied, Frayna officially notched 10th place.
Dutch International Master Lucas Van Foreest topped the event with eight points.
It was the best finish for the country’s first Woman Grandmaster in five tournaments since embarking on an ambitious European campaign where she hopes to gain rating points to barge into the elite women’s top 10.
“This has been my 5th tournament in Europe and my first time to win a trophy. In the past tourneys, I had some fantastic start but would end up badly placed in the last 2 rounds,” said Frayna. “In this tourney, I played against 3 GMs (two draws, one loss) and managed to gain more ELO rating points.
