Anupama, Aarthie post clinical wins

By Our Sports Reporter

PALAKKAD, FEB. 17. Kiran Agrawal has been playing chess for a long time. So long that she has found herself representing two States without changing her residence.

Playing her first Nationals for the newly formed Chattisgarh (which was a part of Madhya Pradesh), Kiran proved on Saturday that she is still young enough for another battle, holding the fifth seed and an old rival, Bhagyashree Thipsay of IDBI to a draw in the second round of the Srichakra Cool Mist 27th National women's `B' chess championship at Hotel Srichakra International. A commendable effort for someone who has been playing Nationals since 1977 and who last made a move in the National women's `A' in 1996.

There was another draw on the top boards, but it was somewhat expected, because you don't normally expect two sisters going for each other's blood in as early as the second round. The Mohota sisters, Nisha, the second seed from LIC, and Swati, who plays for Bengal, drew after just 13 moves of the rarely played Bird's Opening.

The top seed Swati Ghate, not among the staunchest supporters of the new, reduced time control, was for a second successive day the beneficiary of the new time limit. Some irony this.

Third seed Aarthie Ramaswamy of Wipro and fourth seed Anupama Gokhale of PSCB kept their slates clean by garnering full points even as the sixth seed Sriparna Chakraborty of Bengal suffered a reversal from the former National `A' player, S.R. Radha of ONGC.

D. Harika of Andhra Pradesh, the World under-10 silver medallist, held tenth seed Safira Shanaz of Tamil Nadu to a draw. Safira had to enforce perpetual checks, after having the upper hand in the game.

On the first board, Baisakhi, playing on the white side of a Closed Sicilian Defence, had made only 29 moves when her flag went down. But, it was clearly an inferior position nevertheless, though the material on the board was equal on either side. She was saddled with isolated pawns on the queen- side and was up against a doubled rook on `c'. Swati had wisely exchanged the queens on the 25th move, blunting whatever chances white had for a fruitful attack.

Aarthie employed the King's Indian Defence against Kerala's E. Sheena in her 45-move victory. The local girl's best chance in the game came quite early, when her formidable rival, the 1999 World under-18 champion, pushed the `f' pawn to the fifth rank on the tenth move. Sheena overlooked a knight sacrifice on `g5' on her 11th move, which would have exposed Arthie's king to some pretty potent attacks.

Anupama is on a winning spree as for the second successive game, she checkmated her rival. Today it was the turn of Kerala's Aswathi Balagopalan, who managed to lose a pawn on the tenth move itself after opting for King's Indian Defence.

It was all over in 24 moves, as the Mumbai-based five- time National women's `A' champion enhanced her victory with a queen sacrifice. ``I thought she could even in less number of moves,'' said her schoolgirl rival later.

The results (second round): Baisakhi Das (Ben) 1 lost to Swati Ghate (LIC) 2; Nisha Mohota (LIC) 1.5 drew with Swati Mohota (Ben) 1.5; E. Sheena (Ker) 1 lost to Aarthie Ramaswamy (Wipro) 2; Anupama Gokhale (PSCB) 2 bt Aswathi Balagopalan 1; Kiran Agrawal (Chg) 1.5 drew with Bhagyashree Thipsay (IDBI) 1.5; Sreeparna Chakraborty (Ben) 1 lost to S.R. Radha (ONGC) 2; Mrunalini Kunte Aurangabadkar (IDBI) 2 bt Nimmy A. George (Ker) 1; M.R. Sangeetha (TN) 1 lost to Sai Meera Ravi (IB) 2; Safira Shanaz (TN) 1.5 drew with D. Harika (AP) 1.5; M. Kasthuri (TN) 1 lost to Tania Sachdev (Del) 2; C. Delphin (TN) 1 lost to Pazha Sivakami (TN) 2; Y. Prathiba (Chromepet Chess Academy, Chennai) 2 bt N. Raghavi (Capa Chess Academy, Chennai) 1; L. Iswarya Shobana (Capa) 1 lost to Arpi Shah (Guj) 2; S. Sujatha (Emanuel Chess Centre, Chennai) 2 bt Alka Das (Ben) 1; R. Mahima (Chromepet) 1 drew with Dolan Champa Bose (Bih) 1; Manjula V. James (Ker) 0.5 lost to P. Priya (TN) 1.5; Krishna Sudhakar Babu (AICF) 0.5 lost to Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 1.5; Eesha Karvade (Mah) 1 bt G. Lalitha (Kar) 0; Bindu K. Saritha (LIC) 1 bt Sasmita Bhoi (Ori) 0; S. Sushama (Kar) 0 lost to P. Malar Selvi (T. Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai) 1; Jayashree Sankpal (LIC) 1 bt Cija Augustus (Ker) 0; P. Sudha (Ker) 0 lost to M. Rajadarsini (Emanuel) 1; Nabeela Farheen (TN) 1 bt Vidya Fotto (Goa) 0; Anila Shah (Guj) 0 lost to Shah Jabeen (MP) 1; V. Mrunalini (Kar) o los to Prasanna Sivaswami (Goa) 1; Anuprita Patil (Mah) 1 bt Sneha R. Hoble (Goa) 0; Joyce Maria Simoes (Goa) 0 lost to N. Sandhya (Ker) 1; Amruta Mokal (Mah) 1 bt S. Anushya (Ker) 0; Sreedevi Sivadas (Ker) 0 lost to Aneegha Tahseen (T. Nagar) 1; Sofia V. James (Ker) 0 lost to Pooja Rathod (Chg) 1; Swetha (AP) 0 lost to Reshma (Ker) 1.

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