Jun makes short work of Kovalevskaya

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

NEW DELHI, DEC. 11. So it is an all Chinese final.

Xie Jun, the World champion who truly is playing like one, ensured that when she beat Ekaterina Kovalevskaya of Russia 1.5- 0.5 in the tiebreakers in the semifinals of the women's World chess championship at Hyatt Regency on Monday.

``And I am happy that I am at last meeting a Chinese in the final,'' said a beaming Jun after the games, obviously pleased with the days work.

In the final, which begins on Tuesday, she meets her younger compatriot Qin Kanying, who had finished off her job on Sunday itself after the classical games.

The top seed won the first game with white pieces and drew the second quite comfortably. Kovalevskaya, who surprised many, including herself by reaching this far, adopted the Sicilian Defence in that first game, and was in a hurry for attack on the king-side, without allowing her pieces to develop.

She began with a queen check on the 13th move, which was fine, but on the very next move she brought her knight to g4, which was certainly not fine. It proved quite costly in fact.

White took her rook to `f4', and Kovalevskaya had to take her queen back to `e5'. Jun won an exchange immediately, getting a bishop and a knight for a rook on the 17th move. Though Black won the `c2' straight away, that was little consolation. Jun went on to play well to force the win from there, displaying fine technique in a long battle.

The Russian tried to push her pawns on the king-side, where she had a majority, and succeeding in exchanging the queens on the 31st move, after a futile attempt a move earlier. But White continued to manoeveur knights beautifully and gave little chance to her rival.

On the 52nd move, Jun gave up her `h' pawn and broke the king- side pawn structure of Black, which now had doubled pawns, and she immediately recaptured the pawn with her knight.

On the 81st move, White got a rook for her knight and went a full piece up, and then, on the 94th move, she offered her rook for exchange, forcing Kovalevskaya to finally give up. Jun's pawn on `g' was on the fourth rank, protected by the king on `g5.

`Yes, I had to work hard for the win, said the champion about the game. ``I had to think hard about Rf4, but I once found that, she had little chance.''

Jun was in a better position in the second game too, but she decided to draw by perpetual checks. The Ruy Lopez game lasted 66 moves. Jun had won Whites queen for a rook and bishop on the 35th move. ``Well, I could have won the second game,'' said the World champion, ``but I thought there was no point in wasting my energy unnecessarily.''

Of course she is right. For she has no time to relax before the final match gets underway. ``I haven't played Qin for a long time, but I know she is a good player, said Jun, looking forward to the final.

Her opponent also looked charged up on the eve of what is the most important match in her life. ``I am determined to give a strong fight,'' said Qin.

The results (semifinals, tie-breakers): Xie Jun (2568) bt Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Rus 2475) 1.5-0.5.

The paring for the final, game one: Xie Jun (Chn) v Qin Kanying (Chn).

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