Kanying takes memorable step forward

By P.K. Ajith Kumar

NEW DELHI, DEC. 10. When she was just 14, Qin Kanying made history in China by becoming the youngest National women's champion ever. On Sunday, 12 years after that memorable achievement, she took a giant leap in her career. She entered the final of the women's World chess championship at the Hyatt Regency, but she had to really fight hard for the draw she required against Yugoslavia's Alisa Maric.

But she will not know who she is going to play in the final until Monday, as her compatriot and World champion Xie Jun was held to a draw for a second successive day by Russian Ekaterina Kovalevskaya. They will play the tie-breaker on Monday.

Maric opted for the English Opening in the game she had to win after her loss on Saturday. She had a slight edge after the opening. Black, which tried for some king-side attack, had pushed the `h' pawn on the 16th move, which was a bit too optimistic, making her king-side a bit weak. However, after pushing her `f' pawn four moves later, she recovered.

White, in the meanwhile, was launching a potent attack from the other flank and got the `b' file open on the 27th move. Then on the 30th move she doubled her rook on that file and had her queen on `a6'. She won the `a7' pawn on the 33rd move. Her position was looking really promising and it seemed for a while that she would be able to force the tie-breaker.

But Qin wanted to finish off her job today itself, and fought back admirably. She sacrificed pawns on the 33rd and 35th pawns to bring her queen forward and got her knight advanced. White also erred by taking the `e4' pawn on the 35th move with her knight, which was enjoying a good posting on `d6'. She should have taken the pawn with one of her pawns thus strengthening her centre further.

``I think that was a grave mistake from Maric,'' said Qin later. ``I would have been in real trouble, if she had captured my pawn with her `d' or `f' pawn.''

Qin now had the White king in a spot of bother, with her queen and knight. Maric was forced to give up a rook to avoid perpetual check, and pressed hard for a win before agreeing to a draw after 70 moves. Qin had given her knight for three pawns on the 52nd move and drew by trading her rook for knight.

Kovalaveskaya, with black pieces was able to draw with Jun after 52 moves of Sicilian Rossolimo. It was a queen and pawn ending and the position had been drawish for quite some time.

The results (semifinals, game two): Xie Jun (Chn 2568) 1 drew with Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Rus 2475); Alisa Maric (Yug 2443) 0.5 drew with Kin Kanying (Chn 2501) 1.5.

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