The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Two Vizag girls in Asian meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 09, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Chess

Two Vizag girls in Asian meet

Principal Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM: For N.L.V. Anusha and Y.G. Sriharika, two youngsters from the ‘City of Destiny,’ it was a call which they would not have dreamt a few days ago.

Thanks to K.V.V. Sarma of East Coast Chess Academy, who is the Organising Secretary of the on-going Asian team chess championship here, these two promising players got a chance to compete for Indian Greens.

Both Anusha (Elo 2,010) and Sriharika (Elo 1,896) want to be rich in experience in pursuit of achieving excellence.

With Ramana Babu coaching Sriharika, the reigning State under-17 champion and IX standard student of S.F.S. School (Seetammadhara), said she could not have expected a better start to the New Year.

Great experience

An admirer of Gary Kasparov, Sriharika said it was a great experience to play along with some of the big guns like Dronavalli Harika and Tania Sachdev.

“Honestly, I never thought this chance would come so soon,” Sriharika, who loves the Sicilian Opening and the French Defence, said.

A gold medal in the recent National School Games seems to have boosted her confidence. With parents — Dr. Y. Narsing Rao and Y. Padmavathi — deciding to extend full support, she can only look ahead.

So is the case with the 12-year-old Anusha, a IX standard student of DAV Public School here and coached by P. Ramakrishna of Mahesh Chess Academy.

Anusha, the 2006 National u-14 gold medallist, “has the potential, but needs exposure in big events,” her coach, who also trains Ch. Mohineesh, the World u-8 gold medallist and the Commonwealth u-10 bronze medallist, said.

By defeating O. Sabirova of Uzbekistan to record her only second career-win over a WIM, Anusha proved a point.

Not for nothing, WGM Tania is highly impressed with her game. No wonder, these two are rated as future medallists from the city.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport