The Hindu : Sport : Sai Meera is champion

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Wednesday, Sep 27, 2006
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Sai Meera is champion

Arvind Aaron

Maiden entry for 10 to National 'A'

CREDITABLE SHOW: Sai Meera receives the certificate from Aarthie Ramasamy, former World Under-18 champion. Babu Manoharan, Director, St. Joseph's College, looks on. — Photo: Shaju John

CHENNAI: Showing good fighting spirit, Sai Meera Ravi of Indian Bank (Chennai) latched on to a huge blunder from Saheli Nath of Bengal to win the 33rd St. Joseph's National women's `B' chess championship which concluded here on Tuesday. The 29-year-old Sai Meera won nine games and lost two for her title as well as Rs. 20,000 cash prize.

Saheli Nath played the Larsen opening with white and cleverly exchanged queens, the main power of Sai Meera's attacking power. In the end, Sai Meera was working hard to escape defeat when her opponent walked into a mate to lose in 54 moves.

Mahima finishes second

Tamil Nadu's R. Mahima won the second place. Mahima won a piece with white early but Padmini Rout offered plenty of resistance before going down in the long ending. Baisakhi Das of Jharkhand sacrificed a rook in the middle of the board to defeat Preethi of Madurai and take the third place.

Of the 20 players who qualified, 10 had previously played National `A'.

Those who qualified for the National `A' for the first time are: R. Mahima, R. Preethi, Padmini Rout, Pon N. Krithikha, Bhakti Kulkarni, S. Harini, Lakshmi Sahithi, Kanuri Tejaswi, H. Nilavoli and Aabha Thakur. Host Tamil Nadu dominated the event taking eleven of the 20 qualifying berths.

Asian under-14 champion Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa needed a draw to qualify with white but played positively and won against Nabeela Farheen.

List of qualifiers: 1: Sai Meera (BSB) 9/11, 2: R. Mahima (TN) 8.5, 3: Baisakhi Das (Jha) 8, 4-13: R. Preethi (TN), Nimmy A.G. (Ker), P. Priya (TN), Padmini Rout (Ori), Pon N. Krithikha (TN), Saheli Nath (Ben), R. Sanggeetha (TN), Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa), S. Harini (TN), Kiran Monisha Mohanty (Ori) 7.5 each, 14-20: Lakshmi Sahithi (AP), N. Raghavi (TN), P. Sivasankari (TN), S. Sujatha (TN), Kanuri Tejaswi (AP), H. Nilavoli (TN) and Aabha Thakur (Mah) 7 each.

The results (11th round): Saheli Nath lost to Sai Meera; R. Mahima bt Padmini Rout; Baisakhi Das bt R. Preethi; Kiran Mohanty drew with Nimmy; Priya drew with Harini; Bhakti K. bt N. Farheen; Pon N. Krithikha bt Iswarya Shobana; Sanggeetha bt Uthra; N. Raghavi drew with Nilavoli; Lakshmi Sahithi bt Jennitha Anto; A. Thakur bt J.E. Kavitha; K. Shruthi lost to P. Sivasankari; J. Saranya lost to S. Sujatha; Kanuri bt Kumari Rama.

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