The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Son and Mary emerge champions

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Wednesday, Nov 15, 2006
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Sport - Chess

Son and Mary emerge champions

Rakesh Rao

ASIAN CHAMPS: India's Mary Ann Gomes and Vietnam's Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son pose with their trophies. — PHOTO: Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI: Woman International Master Mary Ann Gomes and Vietnam's Grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son drew their ninth and final round games in contrasting ways to become the Asian junior chess champions at the Bapu Samaj Sewa Kendra here on Tuesday.

Mary topped a four-way tie for the title due to the superior average ratings of her nine rivals. The 17-year-old from Kolkata and eventual bronze medallist Lakshmi Sahiti signed peace in just 10 moves for a mutually beneficial result.

By virtue of being the champion, Mary also got a nine-game Woman Grandmaster-norm to go with her 14-game first norm earned earlier this year in the National women's 'A' championship.

Kiran Monisha Mohanty, Lakshmi and R. Preethi were the others to tally seven points from nine rounds. Kiran defeated K. Tejaswi to win the silver, and like Lakshmi, gained her Woman International Master (WIM) title. However, Preethi missed a similar honour since the rules do not allow the fourth-placed player in a tie to gain the WIM title.

Shyam becomes IM

In the open section, Son drew with Chennai lad M. Shyam Sundar to win the gold on tie-break. Shyam settled for the silver and became the country's latest International Master, after matching Son's tally of seven points. G. Rohit took the bronze after beating B. Adhiban. Here, too, Rohit's superior tie-break separated him from three others on 6.5 points.

Eventually, India swept five out of six medals at stake in the championship that gave the country, one IM and two WIMs.

The results (Ninth round, Indians unless stated):

Open: M. Shyam Sundar (7) drew with Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vie, 7); G.N. Gopal (6) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (5); S.P. Sethuraman (6) drew with Ashwin Jayaram (6.5); B. Adhiban (5.5) lost to G. Rohit (6.5); Rahul Sangma (5) lost to Deep Sengupta (6.5); S. Arun Prasad (6) bt Swayams Mishra (5); Dzhurabek Khamrakuov (Uzb, 5.5) drew with M.R. Lalith Babu (5.5); Venkat Sundram (6) bt R. Premnath (5); Swapnil Dhopade (5.5) bt Debashish Das (5); Sai Srinivas (5.5) bt R.S. Kalugampitiya (Sri, 4.5).

Standings: 1-2. Son and Shyam; 3-6. Rohit, Deep, Ashwin and Abhijeet; 7-10. Gopal, Sethuraman, Arun and Venkat.

Girls: Mary Ann Gomes (7) drew with Lakshmi Sahiti (7); Amrutha Mokal (5.5) lost to R. Preethi (7); Kiran Monisha Mohanty (7) bt K. Tejaswi (5); Hoang Thi Bao Tram (Vie, 6) bt Shohreh Bayat (Iri, 5); Padmini Rout (6) bt Kruttika Nadig (5); M. Rajadarshini (5) drew with Saheli Nath (5); Ketaki Kulkarni (4.5) lost to P. Priya (5.5); Mayuri Karunanayake (Sri, 4.5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (4.5); Baisakhi Das (4.5) drew with Syed Nabeela Farheen (4.5); Nadiya Tashimova (Kaz, 4.5) bt Jimli Barua (3.5).

Standings: 1-4. Mary, Kiran, Lakshmi and Preethi; 5-6. Tram and Padmini; 7-8. Priya and Amrutha.

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