Nilavoli halts Malarselvi's run

By Manuel Aaron

KARUR, JULY 30. H.Nilavoli of Chennai brought to a rude halt the all-conquering run of Chennai school girl P.Malarselvi in the Tamil Nadu State sub-junior girls' chess championship for the Arasan Kalyana Sundari Ammal Gurusamy Trophy. Though beaten, Malarselvi continues to lead and Nilavoli is just half a point behind.

In the 26th Tamil Nadu State sub-junior chess championship for the V.L.Ethiraj Trophy, top seed J.Deepan Chakravarthy of Madurai took sole lead.

Two more rounds remain in this championship which qualifies the top four boys and girls to the National sub-junior championships to be held later at Mumbai.

Nilavoli won the opening skirmish when she adopted the Alekhine's Defence against tournament leader Malarselvi who refused to enter theory and played the passive 2 d3. But the game became level and reached a double rook and double knight ending. Here the determination of Nilavoli dominated the game.

Malarselvi could have advantageously sacrificed a knight for black's central pawns as the computer software HIARCS demonstrated after the game. This possibility had not occurred to either player. After this, Nilavoli gradually jockeyed her king and knight in the ending to reach a commanding position. Malarselvi gave up the fight on the 50th turn after losing two pawns in three moves.

P.Priya and the National under-12 girls' champion L.Iswarya Shobana drew their game by repetition after 49 moves. The remarkable thing about this was that they had exchanged off only a knight, bishop and pawn.

With the black pieces, Deepan Chakravarthy adopted the Cambridge- Springs Variation against the Queen's Gambit of Chennai's M.K.Narasimhan. Deepan's middle-game prowess soon saw the game swing in his favour. He hemmed in the white forces in a queenless middle-game and then with the white bishops and king lumped together in the centre, used his rooks from opposite wings to pin and win a bishop. Narasimhan gave up on the 40th move.

The most thrilling game of the round was on the second board between Sivakasi school boy P.Maheswaran and the defending champion S.Raghuraman. Both players were on the attack at different phases of the game. Playing the Sicilian Paulsen Raghuraman won a rook for a knight. Unperturbed, Maheswaran himself played some sparkling moves to win back a rook for his bishop. Thereafter the game petered out into a draw with both players left with only their kings.

The leaders with two rounds to go: Boys: 1 Deepan Chakravarthy 6; 2-5 S.Raghuraman, P.Maheswaran, Poobesh Anand, Praveen Kumar 5.5; 6-9 M.K.Narasimhan, B.R.Kidambi, D.Krishna, A.Sudhir 5; 10-14 R.S.Prasanna, Arun Prasad, R.Parthiban, T.Abhay, V.Srinivas 4.5;

Girls: 1 P.Malarselvi 6; 2 H.Nilavoli 5.5; 3-5 P.Priya, R.Mahima, M.Akila 5; 6-7 L.I.Shobana, P.N.Harini 4.5; 8-12 Shakthi Sharanya, Varsha, Swetha Narayanan, R.Sushmitha, Aneeqha 4;

lImportant results: Boys: M.K.Narasimhan 5 lost to Deepan Chakravarthy 6; S.Raghuraman 5.5 drew with P.Maheswaran (SHNV HSS, Sivakasi) 5.5; Poobesh Anand (Mdu) 5.5 bt R.S.Prasanna (Kan) 4.5; C.Praveen Kumar (Mdu) 5.5 bt R.Siddarth (Che) 4; S.Arun Prasad (Slm) 4.5 drew with R.Parthiban (Slm) 4.5; R.S.Arun Srinivaas (Prince Matrn. HS) 4 lost to B.R.Kidambi (Che) 5; V.Haribalu (Che) 4 lost to D.Krishna (Cbe) 5; T.Karthik Anand (Cbe) 4 lost to A.Sudhir (Cbe) 5; K.Prasanna (Mdu) 4 lost to T.Abhay (Kar) 5; N.Swaminathan (Che) 4 drew with M.Nirmal Chandran (Cbe) 4; Shyam S Krishnan (Che) 4 bt Sa.Kannan (Siv) 3.5.

Girls: Malarselvi 6 lost to Nilavoli 5.5; P.Priya 5 drew with L.Iswarya Shobana (Cluny Matrn.) 4.5; M.Akila (Cbe) 5 bt P.N.Harini (Che) 4.5; Shakthi Sharanya (Kan) 4 lost to R.Mahima (Mdu) 5; Swetha Narayanan (Kan) 4 bt J.Rajasurya (Mdu) 3.5; Aneeqha (Che) 4 bt Anjanaa Sowjanyaa (Kan) 3.5; R.Roopini (Slm) 3 lost to Jennitha Anto (Try) 3.5.

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