The Hindu : Sport : Mary joins four others in lead

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Monday, Nov 12, 2007
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Sport

Mary joins four others in lead

Rakesh Rao

Kiran holds HarikaPriya outpaces Eesha in a 149-move marathon

PUNE: Playing only her fourth competition of the year, twice runner-up Mary Ann Gomes is showing the hunger to make up for the lost time.

Away from the game to concentrate on her academics, the Asian junior girls champion is stepping up the pace with four rounds to go in the 34th women’s National ‘A’ chess championship at the SIMS Complex here on Sunday.

Mary’s persistence against former National champion Aarthie Ramaswamy paid off in 40 moves and saw her join four overnight leaders at five points following an interesting seventh-round action.

After Aarthie, fourth seed Eesha Karavade became the other WGM to lose when Tamil Nadu girl P. Priya emerged stronger in a 149-move marathon. With this second successive loss, Eesha’s chances of making the top-three bracket appear very slim.

For the second consecutive day, defending champion Tania Sachdev did not spend much time over the board. Up against fellow WGM Swati Ghate, Tania settled for a draw after 13 moves that followed the tested theoretical lines of Sicilian Paulsen.

Defensive skills

On the top board, favourite D. Harika got a fair idea of Kiran Manisha Mohanty’s defensive skills in their 68-move drawn encounter.

Mary’s victory came in Sicilian Najdorf after Aarthie placed the knight on the wrong square and crashed to a sudden loss. Earlier, the players reeled off nearly 15 moves of from theory in quick time before Aarthie took more time for her next five moves than Mary. Aarthie then offered a kingside pawn, which Mary accepted, and got a good attack. She went on to sacrifice a rook for a bishop and a pawn but Mary continued correctly and soon forced her rival to err one last time.

Relentless attack

Mary, who had beaten Aarthie’s roommate Sai Meera on Saturday, now plays Kiran. Meanwhile, Sai Meera’s desperation to win backfired. Playing her young Tamil Nadu Statemate Pon N. Krithika, Sai attacked relentlessly from the queenside but mishandled the position and lost.

Kiran, high on confidence after beating Eesha, came up with some remarkable defensive manoeuvres against Harika. Playing with white pieces, Harika chose to castle on the queen side and launched a vigorous attack on the black’s castled king before sacrificing a pawn. Even though Kiran initiated a counter-attack, she did not undermine the potential of Harika’s queen and quickly forced an exchange.

Thereafter, the battle was fought on an even keel until Kiran chose to give up her knight for a two pawns. For the last 17 moves, Kiran explored the possibility of pushing her lone kingside pawn with the help of a bishop.

However, Harika was equal to the challenge with her bishop and knight denying Kiran any chance of an outside win.

Meanwhile, tailender Baisakhi Das withdrew from the competition citing personal reasons.

The results (seventh round): D. Harika (5) drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty (5); Swati Ghate (5) drew with Tania Sachdev (5); Aarthie Ramaswamy (4) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (5); Soumya Swaminathan (4.5) drew with Nisha Mohota (4); P. Priya (4.5) bt Eesha Karavade (3.5); Amruta Mokal (4) bt Padmini Rout (3); Sai Meera (3) lost to Pon N. Krithika (4); S. Harini (3) lost to Nimmy George (4); Anuprita Patil (3.5) drew with Syed Nabeela Farheen (3.5); Rucha Pujari (3) drew with Ch. Divyasri (3.5); R. Preethi (2.5) drew with S. Athirai (2.5); Swati Mohota (3) bt M.R. Sangeetha (2); Baisakhi Das (1) lost to P. Uthra (3); Dhyani Dave (2.5) drew with C. H. Savetha (1.5).

Eighth-round pairings: Swati Ghate-Harika; Mary-Kiran; Priya-Tania; Aarthie-Soumya; Nisha-Amruta; Nimmy-Krithika; Eesha-Anuprita; Divyasri-Nabeela; Padmini-Rucha; Harini-Sai; Uthra-Swati Mohota; Dhyani-Preethi; Athirai-Sangeetha; Savetha bye.

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