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Mary, Arun triumph in style

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE JAN. 6. Jaundice, conjunctivitis, typhoid and severe indigestion. It may not quite read like the best prescription for success in sport. But Mary Ann Gomes has proved it can be so.

The amiable 14-year-old from Kolkata came here straight after braving those illnesses, one after another, and on Tuesday she won the Kajah second National sub-junior superleague chess at the Chess India Complex.

She defeated V.K. Sindhu in the 12th and penultimate round to ensure the title, taking her tally to an unassailable 10 points.

S. Arun Prasad won the boys' event, also with a round to spare. Like Mary, it's turned out to be a fine double at Kozhikode for the Chennai lad. They had won the titles in the National sub-junior — the open event, from which the best players were selected for this tourney — held here last May. Arun's title was confirmed when he scored a fine victory against his main rival Rahul Sangma in the tenth round. He has now eight points, that's a lead of 1.5 points over Rahul and K. Vijay Keerthi. The places second to fifth — in other words berths in the Indian team for the youth Olympiad — would only be known after Wednesday's final round.

The second and third slots in the girls' section have already been decided though. Soumya with 8.5 points will be the runner-up and P. Sivasankari, with eight, third, regardless of what happens in the final round.#Mary finally got an opportunity to adopt her favourite Dutch Defence and took just 30 moves to outwit Sindhu, who couldn't withstand a potent attack on the king-side from Black' queen, double-knight and ominous-looking pawns. Earlier, in the tenth round, Mary was happy when N. Raghavi accepted her offer of draw on the 28th move, as the former was in an inferior position. Arun employed Sicilian Defence against Rahul Sagma, who was determined to attack and got an early edge. But he weathered the onslaught, counter-attacked and posted a memorable win in 50 moves, as he temporarily sacrificed his knight, and then gave his rook for two minor pieces.

The results:

Boys (10th round): T. Abhay 5.5 bt Vishal Shah 3.5; P. Karthikeyan 3 drew with Siram Sarja 4.5; Rahul Sangma 6.5 lost to S. Arun Prasad 8; T.U. Navin Kanna 2 drew with Pratik Shriwas 4.5; K. Vijay Keerthi 6.5 drew with K. Nikhilesh Kumar 5.5; Praveen Prasad drew with G.N. Gopal 6.#Girls (12th round): Meenu Rajendran 4.5 drew with Anjana N. Sowjanya 2.5; Pon. N. Krithika 3 lost to J. Rajasurya 5.5; N. Raghavi 6.5 bt G. Pratika 1.5; V.K. Sindhu 5 lost to Mary Ann Gomes 10; M. Rajadarshini 6.5 lost to S. Harini 4.5; Soumya Swaminathan 8.5 drew with P. Sivasankari 8; Kiran Monisha Mohanty 6 bye.#11th round: Sivasankari bt Rajadarshini; Harini drew with Sindhu; Mary drew with Raghavi; Pratika drew with Krithika; Rajasurya bt Meenu; Anjana lost to Kiran; Soumya bye.

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