Corina shocks Chiburdanidze

By P.K. Ajith Kumar

NEW DELHI, NOV. 30. Standing at the poolside last Saturday, as she talked about her life and chess, Corina Peptan had joked, ``I would love to do better than Nisipeanu.''

On the eve of the World chess championship, the Romanian was speaking about her countryman's giant-killing acts in last year's men's championship at Las Vegas. She may have said that in jest. But she is on her way, in the women's World chess championship at Hyatt Regency. On Thursday she shocked the second seed and six- time World champion Maia Chiburdanidze in the first game of the second round.

It was not the best of days for World champions, as the defending champion and top seed Xie Jun of China was held to a draw by Svetlana Matveeva of Russia. Second seed Alisa Galliamova of Russia, fifth seed Qin Kanying of China, Natalia Zhukova of Ukraine, Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania and Ketino Kachiani- Gersinko of Germany posted wins to make their position little bit comfortable going to the second round on Friday. They all need to draw to advance to the third round.

Corina, who adopted the Queen's Indian Defence, recovered well to nullify the advantage her legendary rival had after the opening. She attacked with gusto to post one of her most memorable win of her career. ``But rather than the stature of my victim, it is the nature of my game that matters more to me,'' she said later, ``and today I was happy with the way I played. And it was important to win with the black pieces.''

She put tremendous pressure on Maia's king-side. By the 22nd move, she took control of the a1-h8 diagonal, by bringing her queen to h8, supporting her bishop. White's position weakened after she pushed `f' pawn. She had a weakness on `d4' too, with an isolated pawn. Then on the 31st move she had doubled pawn on `b', after Corina gave up a pawn to open up her queen and attacked the hapless pawn on `d4'. Black got back her pawn with a queen check on d4.

She built up pressure on the `d' file, and advanced her knight too. On the 39th move she pinned White's rook and queen with her queen. She brought knight to d2 and bishop to `a3' and went for the kill. Maia resigned after 45 moves, facing loss of material.

Jun, who adopted King's Indian Defence, and Svetlana agreed to split the point after reaching what was a closed position for both. Jun's both knights and Svetlana's both bishops did not have much play, and neither was prepared to take a risk.

Galliamova, playing on the white side of a Sicilian Paulsen, made full use of some weak moves from early on in the game from Natasa Bojkovic of Yugoslavia. On the 17th move, Natasa took her knight to `h6', instead of pushing her `g' pawn, digging a grave for her dark squared bishop. She had to give up the bishop on a3 on the 25th move for three pawns. The Russian won comfortably in 36 moves, as Black resigned in a hopeless position.

Kanying, who faced the Sicilian Defence from Maritza Arakhamia of Cuba, won in 46 moves. Zhukova, who played French Defence, beat Joanna Dworakowska of Poland in 36 moves, while Cmilyte beat Inga Khurtslava of Georgia in 40 moves of Nimzo- Indian Defence.

lThe results (Round Two, Game One): Svetlana Matveeva (Rus) drew with Xie Jun (Chn), Maia Chiburdanidze (Geo) lost to Corina Peptan (Rom), Tatjana Vasilevich (Ukr) drew with Irina Krush (US, Alisa Galliamova (Rus) bt Natasa Bojkovic (Yug), Qin Kanying (Chn) bt Maritza Arakhamia (Cub), Peng Zhaoqin (Chn) drew with Wang Lei (Chn), Viktorija Cmilyte (Lit) bt Inga Khurtslava (Geo), Nana Ioseliani (Geor) bt Niina Kosleka (Fin), Marta Zeilinskaya (Pol) drew with Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Rus), Almira Skripchenko- Lautier drew with Marany Meyer (Rus), Joanna Dworakowska (Pol) lost to Natalya Zhukova (Ukr), Ketino Kachiani- Gersikno bt Maria Manakova (Yug), Julia Demina (Rus) drew with Maritza Arribas (Cuba).

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