The Hindu : Sport : Mary set to retain gold

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Friday, Dec 21, 2007
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Mary set to retain gold

Rakesh Rao

Medal rush awaits Tamil Nadu boys

MUMBAI: It was a job well done by Mary Ann Gomes and time to make merry all the way to Christmas next week.

The spirited 18-year-old Kolkata girl made sure of retaining the girls’ gold medal in the Asian junior chess championship with a round to spare when she defeated Pon N. Krithika in the eighth round at the Goregaon Sports Club here on Thursday.

There is an added reason for Mary to rejoice. She is due to pick up her third and final Woman Grandmaster norm that comes with the title.

Presently rated at 2,262, Mary has accumulated enough points in the last few tournaments to cross the stipulated rating of 2,300.

Once her latest norm and updated rating is confirmed by the FIDE, Mary will officially become a Woman GM.

Following the victory on Wednesday, Mary raised her tally to 7.5 points and took an unbeatable 1.5-point lead over Padmini Rout.

The 13-year-old Orissa girl sealed the second spot following a draw against P. Priya.

Battle on for the bronze

The battle for the bronze will be decided on the final day with second seed Kiran Manisha Mohanty, Soumya Swaminathan and P. Sivasankari being the contenders.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu boys looked set to make a sweep of medals in the open section after Aswin Jayaram punished top seed Parimarjan Negi for turning down his draw-offer and stretching beyond the point of no return.

During the 73-move battle in Guico Piano, it was clear that the mounting pressure of expectations had taken its toll on the 14-year-old who eventually paid the price for going too far in search of a victory when there was none.

The result left Aswin, a first-round loser, as the leader with a round to go.

Half-a-point behind Aswin (6.5 points) are Vishnu Prasanna, P. Karthikeyan and last year’s runner-up Shyam Sundar.

But the newsmaker of the day was Mary, who on Tuesday revealed her intentions of making sure of the title with a round to spare.

On Thursday, she seized the initiative in a set up that resembled the reverse Sicilian, sacrificed a pawn in the centre and then forced her rival to give up a rook for a minor piece.

Krithika kept fighting but once Mary threatened to checkmate, the Tamil Nadu girl had no defence.

“I could not sleep well last night and woke up at 4 a.m. I was too tense and restless throughout the game even after got a good position after she made a mistake early in the opening phase,” an excited Mary said soon after ending Krithika’s resistance in 30 moves.

“I came here for my final WGM norm and I am glad I got it by playing well,” Mary, who got her first two norms last year, added.

She claimed her maiden norm in the National ‘A’ championship in Visakhapatnam and the second by winning the Asian junior title in New Delhi.

The results (Indians unless specified): Eighth round:

Open: Aswin Jayaram (6.5) bt Parimarjan Negi (5.5); Vishnu Prasanna (6) drew with Shyam Sundar (6); P. Karthikeyan (6) drew with K. Priyadarshan ( 5.5); P. Saravana Krishnan (5) lost to Aditya Udeshi (5.5).

Deep Sengupta (5) drew with Akshat Khamparia (5); B. Adhiban (4.5) lost to M.R. Lalith Babu (5.5); T. Purushothaman (5.5) bt Swapnil Dhopade (4.5); Bitan Banerjee (5) bt Sayed Alavi (Iri) (4); Aniruddha Deshpande (4) lost to S.P. Sethuraman (5).

Sagar Shah (5) bt Abhishek Das (4); N. Surendran (4.5) drew with S. Nitin (4.5); Atishay Ajmera (3.5) lost to Debashis Das (4.5); Sahaj Grover (3.5) lost to Rakesh Kulkarni (4.5).

Swayams Mishra (4.5) bt Nikhil Kamat (3.5); Meghan Gupte (4) drew with Shreyans K. Shah (4); Abhishek Kelkar (3) lost to Aziz Sharify (Afg) (4.5); Shiven Khosla (3) lost to Sumant Subramanium (Mal) (4);.

Santhosh Kumar (4) bt Y.D.B. Madugalle (Sri) (3); Snehal Bhosale (3) lost to Kiranpal Singh Mahajan (4); Kayasth Madankrishna (Nep) (3.5) drew with Vishwesh Kochrekar (3).

Girls: Mary Ann Gomes (7.5) bt Pon N. Krithika (4); P. Priya (4.5) drew with Padmini Rout (6); P. Sivasankari (5) bt Kiran Manisha Mohanty (5); P. Uthra (4) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (5); Shamima Akter (Ban) (4) lost to Kruttika Nadig (4.5).

S. Harini (4.5) bt Tara Rahimi (Iri) (2.5); J. Mohana Priya (4) bt Y.G. Sriharika (2.5); Mitali Patil (3.5) drew with Bhakti Juikar (2); Sonakshi Rathore (0.5) lost to Atousa Pourkashiyan (Iri) (4).

Leading final-round pairings:

Open: Shyam-Aswin; Karthikeyan-Vishnu; Parimarjan-Priyadarshan; Aditya-Purushothaman; Lalith-Deep.

Girls: Kruttika-Mary; Padmini-Soumya; Kiran-Harini; Sivasankari-Priya; Atousa-Mohana.

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