Bhagyashree wins with elan

By Abhijit Sen Gupta

VISAKHAPATNAM AUG. 1. With a commendable display of consistency and determination Bhagyashree Thipsay lifted the YMCA 28th National `B' women's chess championship title at the YMCA premises here on Wednesday.

In the 11th and final round she defeated Nisha Mohota to top the list with 8.5 points and emerge as the clear cut winner. She was followed by 13 players who had 7.5 points each and they were placed according to progressive scores.

The first ten qualify for the National `A' championship. They are Bhagyashree Thipsay (IDBI), Tania Sachdev (Delhi), Saheli-Dhar Barua (Railways), Anupama Gokhale (PSCB), Dolan Champa Bose (Jharkhand), Pallavi G. Shah (LIC), Sai Meera Ravi (Indian Bank), Eesha Karwade (Maharashtra), Safira Shanaz (TN), and D. Harika (AP).

Prizes were given to the first 15 finishers. Those who finished from 11th to 15th respectively were H. Nilavoli (TN), P. Priya of CAPA, Y. Prathibha (TN), Anuprita Patil (Maharashtra) and M.R. Sangeetha (TN).

The focus of attention this morning was the contest between Bhagyashree and Nisha. The latter playing with black pieces needed to win this battle in order to qualify. In response to Bhagyashree's e4 opening, Nisha went for a centre counter game and made her intentions clear by bringing her queen into the attack at an early stage.

Till the 22nd move the position was more or less equal. But therafter in an effort to break down Bhagyashree's tight defence Nisha adopted some risky methods. But Bhagyashree with all her experience was able to effectively counter Nisha's battle plans and as the contest progressed Nisha came under some time pressure.

Looking desperately for a win, Nisha concentrated on her attack and overlooked a checkmate situation. It gave Bhagyashree a golden chance. She was quick to seize the opportunity and dealt the coup-de-grace to slam the door shut on Nisha.

One statement by Bhagyashree summed it all up . ``I wanted to win this tournament not merely qualify for the National `A','' said Bhagyashree while talking to the media later. This desire was what separated her from the rest of the top ranked players in the fray. Most of the others had just one main objective and that was to qualify. They were not willing to take risks and in many of the rounds the top boards all saw quick draws.

But for Bhagyashree it was not enough to qualify. She was determined to do it in style by winning this tournament and she succeeded in achieving her goal in a splendid manner.

``The competition was tough here but by the fifth round I felt that I would be able to qualify. So then my goal became to win the title and I did not want to take any match lightly,'' she said. ``I was also happy to see that so many youngsters are now taking part at this level of the sport. It augurs well for the future of this sport.

``I think that more GM level tournaments exclusively for women should be conducted in India so that our standard will improve further and we will be given a chance to achieve higher goals,'' she said. Bhagyashree's next aim is to do well in the Commonwealth championship which is to be held in London later this month.

Second placed Tania Sachdev, a 10th standard student of Modern School, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, was very happy to have qualified.

``I felt all the matches were very tough,'' she told the press. ``But my game against Anupama Gokhale was very tiring and the one against Harika was also very difficult.'' Anupama who has won several international titles since 1997 is being coached by G.B. Joshi, V. Koshy and Raja Ravisekhar and their training seems to have stood her in good stead in this tournament. But she said she will now have to concentrate on her 10th class board examinations.

Local followers of the sport were on tenterhooks today since it was a touch and go affair for the Andhra lass D. Harika. She eventually managed to squeeze into the list of qualifiers.

Her mother Mrs. Swarna was not too satisfied with her performance. A lot was expected from Harika after her superb display in the last National `A' wherein she defeated some of the best players in the country. Harika's performance in this tournament had its ups and downs but there was a sense of relief once it was clear that she had qualified. Harika's favourites are Judit Polgar and Vishwanathan Anand.

Most of the players were unanimous in their opinion that the tournament was well organised. There were a record number of more than 100 entries but the programme went off with clockwork precision on all days. There were no complaints or protests credit for which should go to all the organisers particularly Mr. V.R. Bobba, Organising Secretary, officials of the All Vizag District Chess Association, messrs Balakrishna Rao and Varadarajulu, Chief Arbiter, Mr. A.G.S. Raju and arbiters V. Bala Krishna Rao, T. Madhura Valli, Anila Shah, S. Subhashini, R.V. Krishna and Y. Kalyan Kumar.

During the prize distribution ceremony which was presided over by Mr. Vijay Pradhan, President YMCA, the prizes were given away by Mr. M.T. Krishna Babu, IAS, Joint Collector Visakhpatnam.

* The results (11th round): Bhagyashree Thipsay (8.5) bt Nisha Mohota (7); Anupama Gokhale (7.5) drew with Safira Shenaz (7.5), Saheli-Dhar Barua (7.5) drew with Eesha Karwade (7.5); P. Priya (7.5) drew with Sai Meera Ravi (7.5); D. Harika (7.5) drew with Dolan Champa Bose (7.5); Tania Sachdev (7.5) drew with H. Nilavoli (7.5); Pallavi G. Shah (7.5) bt Kiran Agarwal (6.5); Bindu K. Saritha (7) drew with C. Delphin (7); Y. Prathibha (7.5) bt Purabhi Singha (6.5); Anuprita Patil (7.5) bt Baisakhi Das (6).

Shraddha Samani (6.5) drew with N. Sandhya (6.5); Swathi Mohota (6.5) drew with Amrutha Mokal (6.5); N. Vinuthna (6) lost to M.R. Sangeetha (7); T.T. Lakshmi Priya (6) lost to Ch. Kavitha (7); J.E. Kavitha (6) lost to Alka Das (7); Kruthika Nadig (7) bt T. Venela (6); Mugda Dolas (6) lost to Sreeparna Chakrabarthy (6.5); K. Chandrahasa (6) drew with Anoori Shah (6); Nabeela Farheen (6) drew with M. Rajadarshini (6); N. Raghavi (6) drew with S. Sujatha (6).

E. Sheena (6) drew with Niharika Thakkar (6); Saheli Nath (5.5) lost to Sowmya Swaminathan (6.5); Abha Thakur (5.5) drew with S.R. Radha (5.5); Sivasankari (5) lost to C.V. Rajalakshmi (6); T. Aravinda Lochani (5) lost to D. Minu (6); Pooja Rathod (5.5) drew with B.S. Keerthi (5.5); V.K. Sindhu (5) lost to N. Manojna (6); P. Malarselvi (5) bt P. Sudha (5); Jaya Arunmathi (5.5) drew with P.L. Sahiti (5.5); Arpi Shah (5.5) bt K.L. Praneetha (4.5).

I. Ramya Krishna (5.5) bt Junmoni Gogoi (4.5); Shahzabeen (5.5) bt Prasana (4.5); P.V. Nirmala (4.5) lost to P. Uthara (5.5); Dhayani Dave (5) drew with Anjana Sowjanya (5); Pranjali Chandrate (5) drew with K. Nayana (5); S. Kavitha (4.5) lost to Pallavi Maiya (5.5); V. Mrunalini (5.5) bt R. Sharanya (4.5); Nazia Nona U.K. (5) bt M. Sindhu (4); Pampa Dasgupta (5) bt B.K. Srivani (4); Vidya Fotta (4.5) drew with G. Madanasri (4.5).

Pubali Goswami (5) bt M. Sailaja (3.5); Tripti Soni (3.5) lost to Kajri Choksi (4.5); Sonam Shah (4.5) bt K. Sindhu (3.5); Meena Fotta (4) drew with Jyothi Nishad (4); Manisha Singh (3) lost to P. Sushmitha (4); Sasiprabha Singh (4) bt N. Jahanavi (3); T. Amrutha Varshini (4) bt Vandana (3); S. Latha (2) lost to B. Laksmi Keerthi (3).

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : FIDE panel to study one time-control proposal
Next     : Yuveraj puts it beyond Lankans