New time control bothers players; seeds have it easy

By Our Sports Reporter

PALAKKAD, FEB. 16. It took Swati Ghate only 31 moves, and a little effort, to overcome Krutika Nadig on a humid Friday afternoon. But she did not look elated at the air-conditioned auditorium of Hotel Srichakra International.

Veteran Bhagyashree Thipsay was stretched by the young Nabeela Farheen, and she wasn't exactly happy herself. Both the Maharashtra woman admitted that they were a bit worried by the new time control.

Nevertheless, nothing extraordinary happened in the opening round of the Sreechakra Cool Mist 27th National women's `B' chess championship, as all the top seeds, and most of the rated players, registered wins.

``I had played in the Global Trust Bank tournament in Hyderabad and found this reduced time control quite a problem,'' said the No. 1 seed Swati, who is playing for LIC. ``There because of the time pressure I could not covert my clearly better positions into victory.''

There are, though, a few players, who welcome the new time control, like the Chennai girls, Y. Prathiba and S. Sujatha, both of whom played in last year's National women's `A' in Mumbai. ``I never get into time trouble,'' said Sujatha, significantly taller than an average female Indian basketball player, ``so I expect things won't be difficult for me, but I will only know that for sure when I play tougher players later on in the tournament.''

Today though, was too good for Sasmita Bhoi of Orissa, and Prathiba too finished off P. Aneegha of T. Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai.

If Swati was perturbed by the time factor in her Scotch game against Krutika, the latter was more so, because she lost on time in fact, unable to complete the 40 moves in an hour and a half. But when the flag went down, black anyway was doomed to lose, with mate only a couple of moves away. The double bishop of Swati proved deadly, and with the additional support of her rook, she nailed Krutika's king.

On the second board, Nisha Mohota, Swati's teammate, adopted Caro-Kann defence against P. Malar Selvi of T. Nagar Chess Academy of Chennai and took full advantage of the latter's series of weak moves early on in the game.

An unwise piece exchange from Malar helped Nisha more, as her knight advanced to a better square. White resigned after 58 moves, a pawn down on either flank.

The former World under-18 champion Aarthie Ramaswamy was ruthless in her 22-move win against Jayasshree Sankpal of LIC, who employed Pirc Defence.

Aarthie sacrificed a pawn on the 12th move, won a piece on the 16th, captured a rook on the 22nd, and looked in total control on her way to a most convincing win.

The results (first round): Swati Ghate (LIC) bt Krutika Nadig (Mah); P. Malar Selvi (T. Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai) lost to Nisha Mohota (LIC); Aarthie Ramaswamy (Wipro) bt Jayashree Sankpal (LIC); M. Rajadarsini (Emanuel Chess Centre, Chennai) lost to Anupama Gokhale (PSCB); Bhagyashree Thipsay (Mah) bt Nabeela Farheen (TN); Shah Jabeen (MP) lost to Sreeparna Chakraborty (Ben); Dolan Champa Bose (Bih) drew with Krishna Sudhakar Babu (AICF); Prasanna (Goa) lost to Mrunalini Kunte; Sai Meera Ravi (IB) bt Anuprita Patil (Mah); N. Sandhya (Ker) lost to Safira Shanaz (TN); Tania Sachdev (Del) bt Amruta Mokal (Mah); Pooja Rathod (Chg) lost to C. Delphin (TN); P. Priya (TN) drew with R. Mahima (Chromepet Chess Academy, Chennai); Arpi Shah (Guj) bt G. Lalitha (Kar); Sasmita Bhoi (Ori) lost to S. Sujatha (Emanuel); Baisakhi Das (Ben) bt S. Sushama (Kar); Sanjana Das (MP) lost to E. Sheena (Ker); Swati Mohota (Ben) bt P. Sudha (Ker); Alka Das (Bih) bt Bindu K. Saritha (LIC); Aswathi Balagopalan (Ker) bt Anila Shah (Guj); Cija Augustus (Ker) lost to Kiran Agrawal (Chg); S.R. Radha (PSCB) bt V. Mrunalini (Kar); F. Vidya (Goa) lost to M.R. Sangeetha (TN); Nimmy A. George (Ker) bt Joyce M. Simoes (Goa); Sneha (Goa) lost to M. Kasthuri (TN); D. Harika (AP) bt Sofia (Lak); S. Anushya (Pon) lost to Iswarya Shobana (TN); P. Sivakami (TN) bt Sreedevi Sivadas (Lak).

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