A momentous day for Vijayalakshmi

By Rakesh Rao

UDAIPUR, JAN. 19. S. Vijayalakshmi must have felt like a child who was handed over a gift but not allowed to open it until she completed an unfinished work.

On Wednesday, the 20-year-old Indian Airlines employee made history by becoming the first Indian to earn a third Woman Grandmaster-norm after nine rounds of the Asian chess championship here. Technically, she still needs to do some more work in the following two days to get the coveted WGM title.

The near-perfect day for the host also witnessed K. Sasikiran and Surya Shekhar Ganguly stay on course for the Grandmaster norms while P. Harikrishna stunned fourth-seeded Chinese Grandmaster Wang Zili to make sure of a maiden nine-game International Master norm.

Though most of the Indians emerged victorious today, off-form GMs Dibyendu Barua and Pravin Thipsay drew with lesser- rated rivals. Koneru Humpy went down to leader Hoang Thanh Trang (eight points) on the top board to leave the Vietnamese just a draw away from ensuring the woman's title.

The men's title-race saw China's Peng Xiaomin, Xu Jun and Vietnam's Dao Thien Hai record triumphs to share the lead with 6.5 points.

But the focus today was entirely on Vijayalakshmi. After her dramatic victory over top-seed Qin Kanying on Tuesday night, the three-time National champion needed a draw against second-seeded Wang Pin to make a nine-game WGM norm. She managed it following a peaceful 24-move draw with the Chinese WGM in Ruy Lopez. But she still needs to meet certain technical requirements.

Since Vijayalakshmi's two previous norms - of 10 norm- game each - came in Swiss league tournaments, like the one here, her present norm-game tally stands at 29, one less than stipulated by FIDE, the governing body of the discipline. Now Vijayalakshmi will have to either win on Thursday to meet the title-requirement or score 1.5 points from two rounds.

``The third norm had eluded me on several occasions for the last two years and I am glad it finally came in a tough woman's tournament,'' said a visibly-relieved Vijayalakshmi afterwards and quickly added, ``I owe it to my family and friends.''

Like Vijayalakshmi, Sasikiran, too, needs 1.5 points from the remaining two rounds to complete the Grandmaster's title- requirements. Sasikiran managed a draw against second-seed Zhang Zhong in 50 moves of Nimzo-Indian by repetition of moves. At the time of forcing the draw, the Indian considered himself lucky to get away since he had escaped a certain defeat as his rival had a queen against a bishop and rook. But after the draw was agreed, Sasikiran discovered that the position was actually winning for him as he could have won Zhang Zhong's queen and rook for both rooks.

Harikrishna, Ganguly delight fans

Meanwhile, Harikrishna and Ganguly continued to delight the die- hard chess fans here. Harikrishna, ranked 23 in the field of 27, pulled off the biggest upset of the men's section by outsmarting Wang Zili in rook-and-pawn ending. Harikrishna gradually enlarged the opening advantage of this Kings Indian Defence game and found the right continuation to completely leave the fourth seed in knots before winning in 75 moves. Now irrespective of Thursday's result, Harikrishna is sure of a nine-game IM norm.

Ganguly, having added a nine-game IM norm to the 12- game norm he earned in Hungary, made a gallant bid for his first GM-norm. He defeated Bangladesh's IM Ziaur Rahman in Sicilian Defence lasting 50 moves and now requires 1.5 points from two rounds to achieve his goal.

The results (ninth round):

Men: IM K. Sasikiran (Ind, 2514) 5.5 drew with GM Zhang Zhong (Chn, 2611) 6; IM Wu Wenjin (Chn, 2522) 5 lost to GM Xu Jun (Chn, 2578) 6.5; GM Dao Thien Hai (Vie, 2550) 6.5 bt IM Reefat Bin Sattar (Ban, 2379) 5; GM Peng Xiaomin (Chn, 2624) 6.5 bt IM Abhijit Kunte (Ind, 2487) 4.5; FM P. Harikrishna (Ind, 2354) 5.5 bt GM Wang Zili (Chn, 2571) 4.5; Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Ind, 2440) 5.5 bt IM Ziaur Rehman (Ban, 2465) 4.5; GM Dibyendu Barua (Ind, 2555) 4.5 drew with IM Tair Vahidov (Uzb, 2505) 4.5; GM Saydalli Yuldashev (Uzb, 2509) 5 bt Hatem Ibrahim Ahmed (Yem, 2350) 4; IM Dimitry Kaiumov (Uzb, 2475) 4 lost to IM G. B. Prakash (Ind, 2435) 5; FM Ghaem Mehgami Eshan (Ira, 2446) 4 lost to IM R. B. Ramesh (Ind, 2443) 5; GM Pravin Thipsay (Ind, 2475) 4 drew with IM Isaev Jamshed (Uzb, 2425) 4; Razaei Saravi Reza (Ira, 2220) 1.5 lost to S. Kidambi (Ind, 2433) 4.5; IM N. Sudhakar Babu (Ind, 2336) 3.5 drew with FM Timothy Reilly (Aus, 2192) 2.5; IM D. V. Prasad (Ind, 2421) 4.5 bye.

Women: WIM Koneru Humpy (Ind, 2244) 4.5 lost to GM Hoang Thanh Trang (Vie, 2469) 8; WGM Qin Kanying (Chn, 2475) 6.5 drew with IM Maria Sergeeva (Kaz, 2207) 5.5; WGM Wang Pin (Chn, 2469) 5.5 drew with WIM S. Vijayalakshmi (Ind, 2383) 6; WIM Rani Hamid (Ban, 2136) 4 lost to WGM Memedova Rena (Uzb, 2323) 5.5; WIM Xu Yuanyuan (Chn, 2370) 4 lost to WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay (Ind, 2247) 5.5; Tanima Parveen (Ban, 2080) 4 lost to Safira Shanaz (Ind, 2136) 5; Vineetha Wijesuriya (Lan) 2.5 lost to WFM Saheli Dhar Barua (Ind, 2185) 5; Szuvege Narelle (Aus, 2040) 2.5 lost to Tania Sachdev (Ind, 2105) 5; Siti Zulaika (Mal) 1 lost to WIM Swati Ghate (Ind, 2297) 4.5; WIM Tatiana Sergeeva (Kaz, 2250) 4.5 bye.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Kuldeep Kumar takes 1,500m gold
Next     : Leko holds Anand; Kasparov maintains lead