The Hindu : Sport : Soumya makes WGM norm

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
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Sport

Soumya makes WGM norm

Rakesh Rao

— Photo: Rakesh Rao

Soumya Swaminathan.

PUNE: Riding her luck, Soumya Swaminathan picked up a Woman Grandmaster norm on way to join the leader-group in an action-filled penultimate round of the 34th Women’s National ‘A’ chess championship here on Wednesday.

A day that ended with Tania Sachdev, D. Harika, Kiran Manisha Mohanty and Soumya sharing the lead and setting up an intriguing finale, Swati Ghate’s stunning defeat to Soumya in the battle of locals was the most discussed topic.

Swati missed a golden opportunity to go into the final round with a half-point lead when, in an overwhelmingly strong position, she got her bishop trapped and crashed to a disappointing loss. The 40-move victory put Soumya among the leaders for the first .

Interesting battle

Earlier, defending champion Tania and Kiran played out an interesting battle before settling for a draw in 23 moves on the top board. At one point, Kiran thought for 34 minutes for a move before exchanging the pieces in the precise sequence and regaining a pawn. At this stage, in an equal position, the players agreed to sign peace.

Kiran’s citymate from Bhuvaneshwar, 13-year-old Woman International Master in-waiting Padmini Rout gave another example of her potential when she stunned second seed Nisha Mohota in 47 moves. A third straight victory has helped Padmini get a crack at Tania on the second board. In the midst of all the top action featuring leading contenders, former National ‘B’ champion Sai Meera attained the WIM title after making her third and final norm following a 33-move victory over P. Uthra.

The results (10th round): Kiran Manisha Mohanty (7) drew with Tania Sachdev (7); Soumya Swaminathan (7) bt Swati Ghate (6.5); D. Harika (7) bt Mary Ann Gomes (5.5); Nisha Mohota (5.5) lost to Padmini Rout (6); Nimmy George (5) lost to Eesha Karavade (6); Ch. Divyasri (5.5) drew with Aarthie Ramaswamy (5.5); P. Priya (6) bt Amruta Mokal (5); P. Uthra (4) lost to Sai Meera (5.5); Pon N. Krithika (5) bt Rucha Pujari (4); R. Preethi (4.5) drew with Swati Mohota (4.5); M.R. Sangeetha (4) drew with Syed Nabeela Farheen (4); S. Athirai (4.5) bt Anuprita Patil (3.5); C.H. Savetha (3) lost to S. Harini (4); Dhyani Dave (4) bye.

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