It's good-bye to the Georgians

By P.K. Ajith Kumar

NEW DELHI, DEC. 4. The last of the Georgians went out even as two from China, and another of Chinese origin, moved into the last eight of the women's World chess championship. That, of course, is a fair reflection on the present state of the women's game.

While that silent Georgian killer from Romania, Corina Peptan, ousted the 10th seed and former World championship challenger Nana Ioseliani, Almira Skripchenko-Lautier of Maldova caused the biggest upset of the day when she beat the second seed and challenger Alisa Galliamova of Russia and forced the tie- breakers.

Xie Jun, the World champion and top seed, entered the quarterfinals with an impressive win against the Russian veteran Elena Zayac. Qin Kanying, who drew with Ketino Kachiani-Gersinka of Germany, Peng Zhaoqin, the Chinese-born Dutch player, who made it 2-0 against Julia Demina of Russian, Yugoslavia's Alisa Maric, who defeated Victorija Cmilyte of Lithuania, and Corina have also entered the last eight. World Cup champion Xu Yuhua of China and Natalia Zhukova drew for a second successive day and will meet again in the tie-breakers tomorrow.

Almira, playing on the white side of a closed Sicilian, did not let the opportunity go easily like she did on Sunday, when she managed to lose from a better position in the middle game. Though Galliamova was comfortable after the opening, the Maldovian mobilised her forces well to force the win she badly needed. She went an exchange up on the 38th move and four moves later the Russian resigned, as Black's `e' pawn was about to be queened, with another passer on the `f'.

With white pieces, Jun won the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation easily in 29 moves. She attacked with gusto, as she had to win today after the draw on Sunday if she did not want to go into another tie-breaker. She exerted pressure on the centre pretty early by bringing both the rooks into play by the 16th move, with the one on `d' enjoying a fully opened. She won the `c5' pawn on the 24th move.

Soon after, on the 29th move, she sealed her win following a queen check. Black resigned when she was threatened by a knight move to `c6', which would fork, queen, rook and bishop.

Corina fought hard to force the draw with white pieces against Isoliani, who employed the Nimzo-Indian Defence. She gave her rook in the ending and drew by perpetual checks.

Alisa won in 31 moves against Victorija in a game which was transposed to semi-Tarrasch from English. The Lithuanian had blundered a piece from an already inferior position. Peng crushed Demina in 31 moves of Queen's Indian Defence.

The results (round three, game two): Xie Jun (Chn) 1.5 bt Elena Zayac (Rus) 0.5; Xu Yuhua (Ukr) 1 drew with Natalia Zhukova (Ukr) 1; Peng Zhaoqin (Ned) 2 bt Julia Demina 0; Nana Isoliani (Geo) 0.5 drew with Corina Peptan (Rom) 1.5; Ketino Kachiani-Gersinka (Ger) 0.5 drew with Qin Kanying (Chn) 1.5; Almira Skripchenko- Lautier (Mda) 1 drew with Alisa Galliamova (Rus) 1; Alisa Maric (Yug) 1.5 bt Victorija Cmilyte (Lit) 0.5.

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