Dhyani shocks Mrunmayee

AHMEDABAD, DEC. 25. Local star Dhyani Dave shocked fifth seeded S. Mrunmayee of Maharashtra in third round of the under-9 girls' category in the 14th National children's chess championship at the Orient Club here on Monday.

With this win Dhyani now shares the top spot with first seed D. Meenu, second seed I. Ramya Krishna, N. Pragna Patvi (all from Andhra Pradesh), Priya Ratnam of Bihar and Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa with a score of three points each.

In the under-9 boys' section, second seed Prabuddha Ghosh of West Bengal, sixth seed S. Yuzvendra of Haryana, seventh seed G.G. Sreejith of Kerala and Abhisek Kelkar of Maharashtra are leading the field with three points each.

Dhyani playing with the advantage of white pieces maintained a little edge against Mrunmayee in a Sicilian Defence. In the late middlegame the local star converted her advantage to win two vital pawns. The rest was a matter of technique to clinch the issue in 80 moves.

Top seed Meenu, playing with black pieces, had to play a long game of 72 moves in an advanced variation of the French Defence against ninth seed Sirya Bhattacharjee (WB) before emerging victorious.

Prabuddha opened his game with the king pawn to which local lad Bhavya Shah replied with the Pelikan variation of Sicilian Defence. Both players played solidly and entered into the endgame with an almost even position. But just when it appeared that the match was headed for a draw the inexperienced Bhavya traded his rooks, allowing Prabuddha to penetrate with his king and win in 62 moves.

In the under-7 boys' section, top seeded Kumar Gaurav, playing on the first table with black pieces, luckily escaped from the jaws of defeat to win against Vishal Thakre (Mah) in Dragon variation of Sicilian Defence. In the middlegame Kumar got into a cramped position owing to inept handling. He then offered a draw to his lowly ranked opponent who rightly refused it. However, Vishal made a horrible blunder of losing the queen on the 29th move and resigned few moves later.

Kumar now shares the top spot with three others - second seed P. Negi of Delhi, third seed S. Ravi Teja (AP) and Mohd Fawazpa (Ker) with three points each.

In the girls' under-7 section, second seed P.L. Sahiti (AP) playing with white pieces out-classed Chaitra Mukund (Maharashtra), in 52 moves game of Ruy Lopez opening. Fourth seed P. Priya of Tamil Nadu playing with black exploited the bad play of her statemate R. Visalakshi in queen pawn opening to garner a full point in just 28 moves.

Important results:

Boys: under-9: Prabuddha Ghosh (WB, 3) bt Bhavya Shah (Guj, 2); Abhisek Kelkar (Mah, 3) bt V. Gunah (TN, 2); S. Yuzvendra (Har, 3) bt Abhyud (Raj, 2); Anand Trivedi (Guj, 2) lost to G.G. Sreejith (Ker, 3); Sankalp Modwal (Del, 2.5) drew with J.J. Vale (TN, 2.5).

Under-7: Vishak Thakre (Mah, 2) lost to Kumar Gaurav (Bih, 3); P. Negi (Del, 3) bt Mahendra Venkat (AP, 2); Chanakya Manoj (Mah, 2) lost to S. Ravi Teja (AP, 3); Dhrupad Shah (Guj, 2) lost to Mohd. Fawazpa (Ker, 3); Aditya Udeshi (Mah, 2.5) drew with Indranil C. (2.5)

Girls: under-9: Sriya Bhattacharjee (WB) (2) lost to D. Meenu (AP, 3); I. Ramya Krishna (AP, 3) bt Mitali Patel (Mah, 2); Sonam Shah (Guj, 2) lost to Priya Ratnam (Bih, 3); Dhyani Dave (Guj, 3) bt Mrunmayee S. (Mah, 2); Dhara Gupta (Del, 2) lost to N. Pragna Patvi (AP, 3); Shruti Patnakar (Mah, 2) lost to Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa, 3).

Under-7: P.L. Sahiti (AP, 3) bt Chaitra Mukund (Mah, 2); R. Visalakshi (TN, 2) lost to P. Priya (TN, 3); C.H. Savetha (TN, 3) bt V. Niharika (AP, 2); G. Madanashree (AP, 3) bt Mohana Sengupta (WB, 2); V. Aishwarya (1.5) lost to Sumona Aggrawal (Guj, 2.5).

- UNI

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