It's Meenakshi's turn to survive a scare

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE, DEC. 24. After the second seed Y. Prathiba's narrow escape on Saturday, it was the turn of the top seed S. Meenakshi to survive a close call in the second round of the 15th National junior girls' chess championship at the V.K. Krishna Menon Indoor Stadium here on Sunday. Meenakshi achieved a draw with ample help from her rival, M. Kasturi.

Local girl N. Sandhya caused an upset on the third board when she defeated the fourth seed Ashwini Kulkarni of Maharashtra with some ease. The Kerala girl was among the four players who shared the lead after round two, the others being third seed Manasi Dadarkar of Maharashtra, who beat H. Praja Devi of Tamil Nadu, sixth seed M.R. Sangeetha, who defeated teammate Ra. Mahima, and J. E. Kavitha of Tamil Nadu, who got the better of M. Karthika of Lakshadweep.

The leaders have two points each, half-a-point ahead of Meenakshi, Prathiba (Tamil Nadu), Nazia Nona (Kerala), Nimmy A. George (Kerala), H. Niranjana Devi (Tamil Nadu) and Neenu A. George (Kerala). Six rounds remain.

In a Ruy Lopez game, Meenakshi, with black pieces, was in deep trouble after blundering early on. She lost an exchange on the 20th move, when her bishop `a8' trapped by White's bishops. ``I simply overlooked that I was losing my rook for a bishop when I was planning something else,'' Meenakshi said later.

Kasturi played well for a while to improve her already advantageous position, before squandering her chances. She doubled the rooks on the `a' file on the 26th move, and had some promising attack on the queen-side.

Meenakshi, as is her wont, defended stoutly, as Kasturi let her winning chances go abegging. By the 32nd move, the queens and a pair of rooks were exchanged. White made the mistake of taking her king to the centre, underestimating Black's well placed knight, instead of travelling to the king-side.

Meenakshi made good use of her rival's time trouble and drew the game after 70 moves. The bishops had been exchanged on the 65th move, and it was rook and one pawn against knight and two pawns. ``Considering the plight I was in at the beginning, the draw is not a bad result for me,'' said Meenakshi, who was surprised by the way Kasturi played. ``In the last National juniors here in January I had scored an easy win against her.''

Sandhya, who played King's Indian Defence, got a potent attack on the king-side with both her knights and queen, against Ashwini's hapless king. She won a piece on the 37th move and an exchange thee moves later. She got a pawn on the 41st move, and the Maharashtra girl resigned immediately.

On the second board, Manasi, who played Nimzo Indian Defence, had the luxury of offering her queen on the 14th move. Praja Devi could not have taken that, for there was a mate with the knight check on `h3', with bishop on `b7'. Though White survived that crisis, she had little counter play. Manasi forced a rook exchange on the 36th move and created passers on the queen-side. White had to give a knight on the 47th move to prevent the queening of `a' pawn. She resigned after 51 moves.

Sangeetha has no problems

Sangeetha also had it easy against Mahima, who played Sicilian Defence. Black's `a' pawn had become weak following an exchange and she eventually lost it on the 38th move. Sangeetha had passers on the queen-side and won another pawn on the 42nd move. Mahima resigned soon after.

The results (second round): M. Kasturi (TN) 1.5 drew with S. Meenakshi (IA) 1.5; H. Praja Devi (TN) 1 lost to Manasi Dadarkar (Mah) 2; Ashwini Kulkarni (Mah) 1 lost to N. Sandhya (Ker 2; M.R. Sangeetha (TN) 2 bt Ra. Mahima (TN) 1; M. Karthika (Lak) 1 lost to J.E. Kavitha 2; Y. Prathiba (TN) 1.5 bt Pooja Rathod (MP) 1; Nimmy A. George (Ker) 1.5 bt Thelma Gopal (Ker) 0.5; Anuprita Patil (Mah) 0.5 lost to Neenu A. George (Ker) 1.5; Nazia Nona (Ker) 1.5 bt Sonia Balagopalan (Ker) 0.5; Kashmira Neogi (Kar) 1 drew with E. Lakshmi (Kar) 1; Swati Sengupta (Ben) 0 lost to H. Niranjana Devi (T. Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai) 1.5; Pooja Rashivadekar (Kar) 0.5 drew with Aswathy Balgopal (Ker) 0.5; K. Prajeesha (Ker) 0.5 drew with Navya J. Thykattil (Ker) 0.5; Suravi Dutta (Ben) 0 lost to T.T. Lakhshmipriyaa (Emanuel Chess Academy, Chennai) 1; Nadia Nona (Ker) 0 lost to A. Deepa (Kar) 1; Cija Augustus (Ker) 1 bye.

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