Pallavi capable of bringing more laurels to India

By P.K. Ajith Kumar

KOZHIKODE, MAY 14. Two years ago, during the National women's `A' chess championship at Hotel Asma Tower here, Pallavi Shah had a sheepish smile on her cherubic face when one asked about her exploits at the Asian zonal chess championship in Mumbai.

As she is one player who is capable of laughing at her own expense, you could make fun of her horrible show in the Mumbai tournament. She had finished second from the bottom there.

Now, two years later, she is the winner of the very next edition of the championship and has qualified for the next women's World chess championship. That, in a way, is International Woman Master Pallavi Shah for you. She is one of India's most talented female chess players, yet, at times she can also play quite insipidly.

Her triumph at Colombo on Sunday - which could be rated as her best performance in a tournament to date - may be a turning point in her career. She has never played so well after the splendid effort at the chess Olympiad in Elista in 1998, when she completed her IWM title. She had then played remarkably well throughout the world's most prestigious team event, despite not being in the best of health.

But, she hasn't had much to cheer about after that. Her poor form continued at the Istanbul Olympiad, where she failed to live up to the country's expectations.

Hence, this victory at Colombo is a morale booster for this 21- year-old, daughter of a doctor couple of Kolhapur. It will do a world of good to her self-confidence. That she won the tournament so handsomely, and in so emphatic a manner, should indeed make Pallavi a happy girl. But, with the National women's `A' championship, coming up in New Delhi shortly, she cannot afford to relax. It will be interesting to see how she fares in India's hardest domestic tourney for the ladies. India will stand to benefit, if she continues to play the way as she did in Sri Lanka.

In the island nation, it was indeed an impeccable show. She did not lose a single game in the entire round robin tournament, and dropped just 1.5 points in nine rounds.To triumph in a tournament which features the Chennai- based Woman Grandmaster is by itself an achievement for any female Indian chess player. It hasn't happened for quite some time now. Pallavi's victory is thus all the more remarkable. For, between Viji and the other Indian women, there is huge difference as between Sachin Tendulkar and the other Indian batsmen.

Viji has been a familiar face for Pallavi across the chessboard. Eight years ago, at the National sub-junior championship in Jaipur, as she was making the opening moves of her career, Pallavi had lost the title to Viji on the toss. In 1996, Pallavi won her maiden National title, the under-18 championship at Vijayawada. That year she made her debut at the Olympiad, and since then has been a regular member of the Indian team at the biennial event.

An attacking game is Pallavi's forte. She is a courageous player, who loves to take risks, to sacrifice a pawn or piece for a win. Though this has backfired at times, it has also won her admirers from among her own peers, like Nisha Mohota, who was once India's youngest IWM.

People also like her for another reason. She is a genuinely nice girl, pleasingly talkative, endearingly unaffected and exceptionally warm.

And, it is nice to see nice girls sometimes finishing first.

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