The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Harika starts favourite

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Tuesday, Nov 06, 2007
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Sport - Chess

Harika starts favourite

Rakesh Rao

Richest tournament in the history of the championship
Eesha keen to do well at home

PUNE: One consistent factor among the country’s leading chess-playing women is their inconsistency.

Over the last few years, barring Koneru Humpy, all the other accomplished names have shown a certain vulnerability when the situation demands them to stand firm.

The 34th National ‘A’ women’s chess championship that opens at the SIMS complex here on Tuesday will not only be the strongest and the richest in the history of the championship, but also promises to provide a huge number of surprises.

As a result, the consistency of the contenders will be severely tested.

The 28-player field, headed by International Master D. Harika, who rushed to the city from Macau after bagging five medals in the Asian Indoor Games, has three players holding rating in excess of 2,400 and three others over 2,300.

A rarity

This is a rarity among women players in the country.

Since one-third of those in fray have a rating of over 2,200, a number of surprises are in the offing in this 11-round competition.

Going purely by form, Harika is an obvious favourite.

Armed with two gold, two silver and a bronze from Macau and looking understandably pleased on the eve of the championship Harika said, “I just enjoyed every moment of it in Macau. My results in classical, rapid and blitz were very satisfying and that’s the reason I am keenly looking forward to continuing my form here.”

Runner-up to Tania Sachdev last year, Harika will have to stave off serious challenge from former champions Nisha Mohota, local favourite Swati Ghate and Aarthie Ramaswamy.

Eesha Karavade is also keen to do well at home. Asian girls’ champion Mary Ann Gomes, two-time former National junior champion Soumya Swaminathan, reigning National ‘B’ winner Kiran Manisha Mohanty and her Orissa-mate Padmini Rout are all capable of giving the bigger names a run for their money.

From the prize-money of Rs. 2.5 lakh, the winner will receive Rs. 75,000 and the runner-up, Rs. 50,000.

Vijayalakshmi pulls out

The field would have been stronger had six-time champion S. Vijayalakshmi and sister Meenakshi not pulled out citing personal reasons.

Joining the list of no-shows was the National girls’ champion Bhakti Kulkarni, followed by Andhra’s Lakshmi P. Sahiti and Ramya Krishna.

If the impressive inaugural ceremony is any indication of the organising skills of the host Symbiosis Society, the players are in for a memorable event.

According to a senior player, women’s National championship usually leaves a lot to be desired in terms of the facilities offered but “this time everything appears excellent.”

What more, all the games will be available live on internet.

It may be recalled that this year’s National ‘A’ in Chennai had to be postponed after the players had protested the sub-standard thus “unacceptable” lodging offered to them.

First round pairings (top-10 boards):

Harika-Priya; Preethi-Nisha; Tania-Sangeetha; Swati Mohota-Eesha; Aarthie-Baisakhi; Nabeela-Swati Ghate; Kiran-Rucha; Anuprita-Mary; Soumya-Harini; Uttra-Padmini.

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