Li Ruofan stops Nisha's dream run

By Arvind Aaron

CHENNAI, SEPT. 8. Chinese International Woman Master Li Ruofan stopped Nisha Mohota's dream run by defeating her in the seventh round of the 9th India Cements Asian women's chess championship here at Hotel Taj Connemara on Saturday.

Top seed woman Grandmaster Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman excelled in the crucial time control phase of her encounter to defeat Wang Yu of China and share the lead with Li Ruofan with 5.5 points from seven games.

In the second spot on five points are Aarthie Ramaswamy, Nisha Mohota, Huang Qian and Swati Ghate. Four rounds remain to be played in this continental championship. At least eight players or a maximum of ten players will qualify from this event to the World women's chess championship to be held from November 24, 2001.

Nisha Mohota could not find the right plan with the white pieces after opting for the fianchetto variation of the Benko gambit. Li Ruofan's opening choice as black was right that she left white short of ideas right from out of the opening which featured a pawn sacrifice.

White was in various trouble after the opening and could not keep the extra pawn for long before black won it back on move 25 and went ahead on the pawn count by the 27th turn. In the ensuing queen and pawn ending, Li received a gift when white volunteered the exchange of queens to win a simple pawn ending on the 48th move. ``My 22nd move was wrong, else I could have saved a pawn,'' said the dejected loser after the encounter.

The defeat on the top board was so vital that it hurt India's scorecard to minus one that comprises of five defeats, four wins, one draw and one bye from this round. On the contrary the Chinese had a better day winning three games, losing and drawing two apiece.

The game between Wang Yu and Vijayalakshmi was a fiercely fought encounter between the top two seeds of the tournament. This Giuoco Piano opening game saw the Chinese player miss a good chance on move 28 when she could capture a pawn and take a decisive advantage. The presence of opposite colour bishops with the full compliment of major pieces ensured attacking possibilities for both sides.

Wang Yu had a passed queen bishop pawn to Vijayalakshmi's king side pawn mass. White underestimated black's attacking possibilities and lost when her king side was stripped without sufficient pawn shelter. Wang Yu, the untitled Chinese player resigned on move 45 when all that she had left was wait and expect Vijayalakshmi to show her technique to convert the two pawn advantage.

This victory in the prestigious battle between the two highest rated players takes Vijayalakshmi to joint lead. She faces Li Ruofan with the black pieces in Sunday's eighth round.

Untitled Huang Qian of China shocked woman Grandmaster Mekhri Geldeyeva of Turkmenistan with a flowing long combination starting move 31 and ending on move 38. Huang Qian moved to the second spot and holds plenty of surprise in the remaining four rounds.

Former World under-18 girls champion Aarthie Ramaswamy was lucky to grind Nguyen Thi Thien An of Vietnam to a defeat in 72 moves after the latter did not take a perpetual check while deciding to play on ambitiously in a pawn down queen ending.

On move 29, Nguyen, who played black in a Caro-Kann defence took the risk by sacrificing a queen side pawn. Aarthie won a pawn and seized the opportunity to exchange queens and win in the sudden death time control.

``I was down to the last 30 seconds of countdown time when she decided to play for a win,'' said Aarthie about the factor which earned her an extra half point.

Swati Ghate played an excellent positional game to outwit higher rated Chinese International Woman Master Gu Xiaobing with the black pieces from a Sicilian defence, Sveshnikov variation.

The Sangli girl who now lives in Pune went for a deep combination on the 23rd move. It involved a rook for bishop sacrifice. White's four pawns were islands by themselves and black dominated the rest of the game to win the rook for bishop material back. In the queen and rook ending, white resigned when she had to walk into fire while being three pawns down.

Chennai's Y. Prathiba had problems keeping her king side pieces active as Anjela Khegay overwhelmed her and mated her on the 38th move with the white pieces from a Dutch defence.

Pushing one pawn too far on move 25 cost Dronavalli Harika (white) a vital point when fellow unrated Zhang Jilin of China used that to win a king's Indian defence game in 67 moves.

Iroda Khamrakulova of Uzbekistan recovered in a big way by scoring an effortless 31-move victory over Asian junior girls champion M. Kasturi. Kasturi's Philidor defence was followed by poor follow-up play that included castling on the queen side. White's attack was too strong and Khamrakulova finished off in style with a rook sacrifice.

There are only two former champions playing in the tournament and they met in a surprising lower half pairing. The comparatively youthful Anupama Gokhale sailed to a 42-move victory that came with a flurry of tactics involving a pawn and rook for bishop sacrifices. Bhagyashree Thipsay who played the Dutch defence as black was decimated to defeat when white was ahead in a queening race.

The 1991 winner Bhagyashree Thipsay who had no chances in this game is left with a poor score that she is receiving a `bye' for the next round.

lThe results (seventh round): Nisha Mohota (Ind) 5 lost to Li Ruofan (Chn) 5.5, Wang Yu (Chn) 4.5 lost to S.Vijayalakshmi (Ind) 5.5, Huang Qian (Chn) 5 bt Mekhri Geldeyeva (Trk) 4, Aarthie Ramaswamy (Ind) 5 bt Nguyen Thi Thanh An (Vie) 4, Gu Xiaobing (Chn) 3.5 lost to Swati Ghate (Ind) 5, S.Meenakshi (Ind) Sergeeva Maria (Kaz), Zhao Xue (Chn) 3.5 drew with Yu Ting (Chn) 4, Le Kieu Thien Kim (Vie) 3 lost to Elena Levushkina (Uzb) 4, Anjela Khegay (Uzb) 3 bt Y.Prathiba (Ind) 3, Dronavalli Harika (Ind) 3 lost to Zhang Jilin (Chn) 4, Iroda Khamrakulova (Uzb) 3.5 bt. M.Kasturi (Ind) 2.5, Anupama Gokhale (Ind) 3.5 bt Bhagyashree Thipsay (Ind) 2, Rani Hamid (Ban) 2.5 drew with Vineetha Wijesuriya (Sri) 2.5, Nazrana Khan (Ban) 2.5 drew with Khanam Afroza Bably (Ban) 2.5, Zakia Sultana (Ban) 2.5 drew with Anupama Konara (Sri) 2.5, Saheli Barua (Ind) 2.5 - bye.

The moves: Wang Yu (Elo: 2392)- WGM S.Vijayalakshmi (Elo: 2397), round seven, Giuoco Piano, C53: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.Bb3 a6 7.0-0 0-0 8.Nbd2 Ba7 9.h3 h6 10.Re1 Nh5 11.Nf1 Qf6 12.Ne3 Nf4 13.Ng4 Qg6 14.Bxf4 Bxg4 15.hxg4 exf4 16.d4 Rad8 17.Bd5 Ne7 18.Bxb7 a5 19.Qe2 Qxg4 20.Qa6 Bb6 21.b4 axb4 22.cxb4 Ng6 23.a4 Nh4 24.Nxh4 Qxh4 25.Qd3 f3 26.Qxf3 Bxd4 27.Rac1 Rde8 28.Rc4 c5 29.a5 f5 30.Bd5+ Kh8 31.e5 dxe5 32.bxc5 Qd8 33.a6 Qa5 34.Rec1 Bb2 35.Rb1 Qxa6 36.c6 e4 37.Qb3 Be5 38.c7 Qa5 39.Qb7 Rc8 40.Rbc1 e3 41.fxe3 Qd2 42.Kh1 Qxe3 43.Qb4 Qg3 44.Kg1 Rfe8 45.Bc6 Rxc7 0-1.

IWM Nisha Mohota-IWM Li Ruofan, round seven, Benko Gambit, A58: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Nc3 Bxa6 7.g3 Bg7 8.Bg2 d6 9.Nf3 Nbd7 10.Rb1 0-0 11.0-0 Ra7 12.b3 Qa8 13.Bb2 Rb8 14.Re1 Rab7 15.e4 Ng4 16.Bf1 Rb4 17.Qc2 Nge5 18.Nd2 c4 19.bxc4 Nxc4 20.Bxc4 Bxc4 21.Ba1 Nc5 22.Rxb4 Rxb4 23.Nxc4 Rxc4 24.Qd2 Bxc3 25.Bxc3 Nxe4 26.Qd3 Rxc3 27.Qxe4 Qxa2 28.Qxe7 Qxd5 29.Qf6 Qc6 30.h4 Rc1 31.Rxc1 Qxc1+ 32.Kh2 Qc5 33.Kg2 h5 34.Kf3 Qd5+ 35.Kf4 Qe6 36.Qd8+ Kg7 37.Qc7 d5 38.Qe5+ Qf6+ 39.Qxf6+ Kxf6 40.Ke3 Ke5 41.Kd3 d4 42.Ke2 Ke4 43.f3+ Kd5 44.Kd3 f5 45.Kd2 Kc4 46.Kc2 d3+ 47.Kd1 Kc3 48.Kc1 d2+ 0-1.

Huang Qian (Elo: 2260)-WGM Mekhri Geldeyeva (Elo: 2284), round seven, Reti opening, A07: 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 g6 4.0-0 Bg7 5.d3 0-0 6.Nbd2 c6 7.c3 Nbd7 8.Re1 Qc7 9.Qc2 Rd8 10.h3 e5 11.e4 dxe4 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.dxe4 h6 14.Be3 Nf8 15.Nd2 b6 16.Nf1 Ba6 17.f4 Nd7 18.Qf2 Nf6 19.g4 Rd7 20.Ng3 Re8 21.fxe5 Qxe5 22.Bd4 Qe6 23.e5 Nd5 24.Ne4 Rde7 25.Nd6 Rd8 26.Rad1 Rc7 27.c4 Ne7 28.b3 Nc8 29.Bc3 Rcd7 30.Bxc6 Ne7 31.Bxd7 Rxd7 32.Nxf7 Rxd1 33.Rxd1 Qxf7 34.Rd8+ Bf8 35.Qxf7+ Kxf7 36.e6+ Kg8 37.Bf6 Nc6 38.e7 1-0.

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