Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003
Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003 |
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Chess
By P.K. Ajith Kumar
GM Koneru Humpy pressing the stopclock after making a move against WIM Tania Sachdev in the National women's A chess championship at Kozhikode on Monday. — Photo: Ramesh Kurup
She has the three full points, half-a-point ahead of reigning champion Aarthie Ramaswamy of Tamil Nadu, Dronavalli Harika of Andhra and Nisha Mohota of LIC. Humpy would've been happier today if her younger sister, Koneru Chandra Hawsa, looking quite impressive so far on her debut, had been able to take full points off Swati Ghate, as she had been threatening to, right from the opening. But an oversight from the youngster allowed the fifth-seeded Swati to escape with a draw. The day also saw second seed S. Vijayalakshmi of Indian Airlines, the gritty fighter from Chennai, posting her first victory, after drawing both her games on the opening day. She had left home with a fever, which is still troubling her, but she showed no signs of it during her convincing win against debutante C.V. Rajalakshmi, also from Chennai. Vijayalakshmi's younger sister S. Meenakshi also scored her maiden win, against Saheli Nath from Bengal, another debutante who is finding India's toughest women's tournament a little tough. The Kolkata lass has yet to open her account. Humpy, who faced Nimzo-Indian Defence from Tania, had the bishop-pair advantage, controlled the centre and created isolated pawns on the queen-side. She went a pawn up on the 28th move, and won four moves later, with her rival making things easier for her by blundering a piece. ``I am happy with the way I played today,'' said Humpy later. ``I was already in a very good position, long before she blundered.'' A little earlier, her sister too had been in a very good position, a position from where she should have gone on to win, before she blundered. It was rather a case of blundering back, returning a favour. Swati had blundered a pawn as early as the ninth move, but 19 moves later her rival gave it back, thanks to a gross miscalculation, and the game was drawn after 34 moves. But Chandra Hawsa was still able to sport a smile as she looked back at her costly error a little later. ``I thought I was playing well till that mistake,'' she said. Two other higher seeds were forced to sign peace treaties on Monday. Third seed Harika was held to a draw by Anupama Gokhale of Bharat Petroleum and sixth seed Nisha by Eesha Karvade of Maharashtra. Harika and Anupama decided to split points after just 18 moves of Grunfeld Defence. Things were fairly even, with only the queens and one minor piece each being exchanged. Eesha though was placed slightly better against Nisha, who was courageous enough to employ Dutch Defence (but she got some flak for that from the Indian coach, Evgeny Vladimirov, the popular Grandmaster from Kazakhstan, who is currently training young Indian players here). The game was drawn after 27 moves, as Eesha failed to find a winning plan. In a Sicilian Rossolimo game, Aarthie, with black pieces, gave an exchange for a pawn, got the exchange back and won in 32 moves against a woefully out-of-form Bhagyashree Thipsay. Vijayalakshmi, also playing black, won in 52 moves of English Opening against Rajalakshmi, who looked rather unsure of herself from the beginning. The results (third round): Koneru Humpy (AP) 3 bt Tania Sachdev (Del) 1.5; S. Meenakshi 1.5 bt Saheli Nath (Ben) 0; Koneru Chandra Hawsa (AP) 2 drew with Swati Ghate (LIC) 1.5; C.V. Rajalakshmi (TN) 0.5 lost to S. Vijayalakshmi (IA) 2; Y. Prathiba (TN) 1.5 bt Kruttika Nadig (Mah) 1; Eesha Karvade (Mah) 1.5 drew with Nisha Mohota (LIC) 2.5; Saimeera Ravi (IB) 1.5 bt M.R. Sangeetha (TN) 0.5; Bhagyashree Thipsay (IDBI) 0 lost to Aarthie Ramaswamy (TN) 2.5; Anupama Gokhale (BP) 2 drew with Dronavalli Harika (AP) 2.5.
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