Manasi checks Sandhya's spree

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE, DEC. 26. The long absence from the chessboard dose not seem to have affected Manasi Dadarkar's game. The Pune girl, who took a year off from the game for the sake of academics, shot into the sole lead at the end of the fourth round of the 15th National junior girls' chess championship at the V.K. Krishna Menon Indoor Stadium.

On Tuesday she beat local girl N. Sandhya with black pieces on the top board to take her tally to four points from as many games. The Kerala girl, who had scored two upsets in the last two rounds, thus was finally brought down to the ground. Half-a-point behind Manasi are two players, the top seed S. Meenakshi of Indian Airlines and H. Niranjana Devi of T. Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai.

On a black day for white on the top baords, Meenakshi outwitted Y. Prathiba of Tamil Nadu on the second board and Niranjana surprised the fourth seed Ashwini Kulkarni of Maharashtra, who is certainly not having a great time in this tournament, on the third board. Four rounds remain to be played. On Wednesday, Manasi takes on Meenakshi on the first board, Niranjana plays Kavitha on the second and Cija Augustus of Kerala meets team-mate Sandhya on the third. Sandhya began with Reti Opening and was surprised to find Manasi reply with Dutch Defence. ``I think she did not expect it,'' said Manasi later, ``but I am comfortable with Dutch.''

Not surprisingly, white could not handle the opening properly, allowing Manasi to allow the upper hand before long. By the 20th move, black had the double bishop advantage. She had got the `f' file half-open too.

Manasi claimed white's weak `f' pawn on the 32nd move, following the exchange of queens. Sandhya could have done little from then on, but she prolonged the inevitable for a while before resigning after 60 moves. Her knight was pinned by the rook and she was facing a loss of material as Manasi's passed pawn on the centre was marching menacingly forward.

``It was a fairly comfortable victory,'' said Manasi. ``After the mistakes she made in the opening, it was always going to be difficult for her.''

In a Ruy Lopez game, Meenakshi, with black pieces, did not have to wait long before taking control. She had a good posting for her knight in the centre and had the rooks doubled on the `e' file on the 30th move. She won a pawn on the 39th mvoe and another on the 51st. Eight moves later she sacrificed her bishop and forced Prathiba to resign after 64 moves, with a queening threat.

Niranjana, who adopted King's Indian Defence, won in 45 moves, after capturing pawns on the 35th and 40th turns. In a knight ending she had a passer on the queen-side. M.R. Sangeetha and Pooja Rathod drew after 80 moves of Sicilian Dragon.

The results (fourth round): N. Sandhya (Ker) 3 lost to Manasi Dadarkar (Mah) 4; Y. Prathiba (TN) 2.5 lost to S. Meenakshi (TN) 3.5; Ashwini Kulkarni (Mah) 2 lost to H. Niranjana Devi (T. Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai) 3.5; M.R. Sangeetha (TN) 2.5 bt drew with Pooja Rathod (MP) 2.5; J.E. Kavitha (TN) 3 bt T.T. Lakshmipriyaa (Emanuel Chess Academy, Chennai) 2; Nazia Nona (Ker) 2 lost to Cija Augustus (Ker) 3; M. Kasturi (TN) 2.5 bt Ra. Mahima (TN) 1.5; Nimmy A. George (Ker) 2.5 bt Neenu A. George (Ker) 1.5; Anuprita Patil (Mah) 2 drew with E. Lakshmi (Kar) 2; K. Prajeesha (Ker) 1.5 drew with Thelma Gopal (Ker) 2; Aswathi Balagopalan (Ker) 2 bt Kashmira Neogi (Kar) 2; Swati Sengupta (Ben) 2 bt Nadia Nona (Ker) 1; H. Praja Devi (TN) 1.5 drew with Sonia Balagopalan (Ker) 1.5; M. Karthika (Lak) 1 lost to A. Deepa (Kar) 2; Pooja Rashivadekar (Kar) 1 drew with Navya J. Thykattil (Ker) 1; Suravi Dutta (Ben) 1 bye.

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