Sport - Chess   

Sai Nirupama claims title

By Manuel Aaron

Thalambur Nov. 2 Ten out of ten. That is how K. Sai Nirupama of Andhra won the National under-7 girls title in the Vel's Srinivasa College of Engineering & Technology 17th National boys & girls chess championship when the tenth round concluded on Sunday. The last round would be played tomorrow morning.

As a point of interest, she won the title after the ninth round itself when she beat State-mate Sahaja Sri and her closest rival, Chandana Priya Reddy lost to K.Vyshali. At that point she was on nine points out of nine and two of her closest rivals were on 7 points each.

In the tenth round, Sai asserted her supremacy by beating Soumya Srivastav of Maharashtra to take her score to an incredible 10 out of 10.

Kotepalli Sai Nirupama, the Andhra under-7 girls State champion was born on 28 March 1996. Her father, Sambasivam is a constable in Ongole in Prakasam District. Sai is a Third Standard student in Sunshine Public School at Ongole. But like most Andhra children, she rarely goes to school. Chess is their life and great passion. She has an elder sister, Priyanka, who will be playing in the under-9 girls at Calicut.

Sai is coached by L. Sembhu who has played for Andhra in the National B in 1989. Sembhu does not follow the paths of European trainers. He concentrates more on the children actually playing games. He has taught Sai to open with the bizarre e3 and g3 on the first two moves with white and to defend with e6 and g6 with the black pieces. This should be called the Sembhu system. He says that when Sai becomes stronger and older he will switch to a different opening system.

What he has taught her has served her admirably in this championship. Sai will be getting from the Andhra Government Rs. 100,000 plus a computer worth Rs. 40,000 for her victory here.

This big incentive and other bigger incentives for bigger achievements inspires Andhra chess players to excel in chess, even if it goes against their completing formal education. The situation in the boys' section is in sharp contrast to the girls. The position has got murkier with Ravi Teja and Lalith Abhilash Reddy both of Andhra sharing the lead with 8.5 points each. Phani Bhushan is half a point behind these two while K. Harsh and Deepthamsh Reddy are a further half point adrift.

All these players are from Andhra. Anything can happen in the last round tomorrow.

With a higher tie-break score, Ravi Teja took a 15-move draw with K.Harsh while Lalith had a long 67-move victory over Deepthamsh Reddy to reach the top bracket.

Top results of Round 10 (boys):

Ravi Teja (CA Hyd) 8.5 drew K.Harsh (AP) 7.5; Lalith Abhilash Reddy 8.5 bt Deepthamsh Reddy (CA Hyd) 7.5; Phani Bhushan (AP) 8 bt K. Reshmanth (CA Hyd) 7; C.S. Aditya (AP) 6.5 lost to Niraj Saripalli (Goa) 7.5; Kumar Sanu (Jhar) 7 drew Raj Narayan Prasad (Bhr) 7; .Murali Krishnan ((AP) 7 drew G.V. Sai Krishna (Champions) 7; Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (Or) 6.5 drew Osama Salim (TN) 6.5; R. Eswar (AP) 7 bt Ankit Dixit (UP) 6; V.Prabhu (TN) 6 lost to Y.V.K.Chakravarthy (AP) 7; Karma Pandya (Guj) 7 bt Deepak Patil (Mah) 6; V. R. Varman 6 lost to S.V.Srinath Rao (Chatt) 6.5; Shiven Khosla (Mah) 6.5 bt Ajay Sundar (Chennai CA) 5.5; Eshwanth Devkumar (TN) 6.5 bt Prakhar Rao (UP) 5.5; Sai Manoj Reddy (AP) 6.5 bt Romicha Singh (Man) 5.5; Shardul A Gagare (Mah) 5.5 lost to Tanuj S Dayal (Venus CA) 6.5.

Girls: Soumya Srivastav (Mah) 6.5 lost to K. Sai Nirupama (AP) 10; Priyanka Atre (MP) 6.5 lost to Chandana Priya Reddy (AP) 8; Sahaja Sri (AP) 6.5 lost to K.Vyshali (AP) 8; A.R. Priya (T. Nagar CA-Vij) 7.5 bt Prachi Sharma (MP) 6; Mayuri More (Mah) 6 lost to Y. Sai Lakshmi (Champions) 7; G. Swetha (Chromepet CA) 6 lost to Prutha Dubhashi (Mah) 7; G. Abinaya (TN) 7 bt Nirupama Panglijam (Man) 6; B. Prathyusha (CA Hyd) 7 bt Sonakshi Rathore (Raj) 5.5; G. Aiswarya (AP) 5.5 lost to Srinithi Nagarajan (TN) 6.5; R. Priyadarshini (Aaron CA) 6 bt Pranati Pai (Kar) 5; Neha Mudliyar (Mah) 5 lost to Tamishra Das (WB) 6; Mahasweta Kumar (Asm) 6 bt Samyuktha Deve (TN) 5; D. Karishma Rani (TN) 5 lost to C.K. Abinaya Swathi (TN) 6; Anvesha Agrahari (Chat) 6 bt Pretha K Ganesh (TN) 5; A.V. Swatija (TN) 5 lost to U. Ashwini (Emmanuel CC) 6.

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