Mohota is star of opening day

By Arvind Aaron

CHENNAI, SEPT. 3. International Woman Master Nisha Mohota of Kolkata sprang an opening round surprise by downing second seed Wang Yu of China in the ninth India Cements Asian women's chess championship which began at the Hotel Taj Connemara here on Monday.

The opening day provided four surprises and started on a decisive note with just one game ending in a draw after a full fight. The spectators at the Binny Hall got enough value for time as play was exciting and fast under the new four-hour time control.

The 11 Indians had a mixed performance on day one with five wins, five losses and one draw. The mighty Chinese, who arrived in the small hours of Monday, were included in a revised draw of pairings for round one. The Chinese also had a similar performance winning three, losing three and receiving one bye.

The Chinese and Vietnamese players appeared tired as they played within seven hours of touching down in India. Asian junior girls' champion M. Kasturi, who returned from the Greece world

junior and arrived here this morning by train from New Delhi became India's 11th player in the meet.

The day's star, however, was Nisha Mohota who played with initiative to shock second-seeded Wang Yu with the white pieces in a Slav defence game. Sacrificing a pawn, the Indian used her two bishops and active pieces to win back the same material in time pressure. Using her passed queen rook pawn she won black's knight and went on to win the ending in 56 moves using her extra bishop.

The Indian did what she missed doing at Yerevan in Armenia last year against the same opponent. ``I needed a win against her for the bronze medal in the World junior but only managed a draw,'' said Nisha Mohota.

Chennai is a good hunting ground for this was the same city where she became an International Woman Master by scoring two-thirds in a zonal tournament in 1995.

The lone Indian to have an easy time against a visitor was Meenakshi Subbaraman who beat Vineetha Wijesuriya with the white pieces in 43 moves from a queen's gambit declined, exchange variation opening.

Playing her first tournament game in Chennai, Swati Ghate benefitted from her opponent, Y. Prathiba's passive and unambitious play to win a 49-move rook ending with the black pieces from a Berlin defence. ``Prathiba went for this rook ending on purpose and the moves were forced,'' Swati Ghate described her victory. Prathiba hoped for a draw which wasn't there. Swati Ghate, who became the first woman to qualify for the men's National `A' at Nagpur this July, is in great touch.

Top-seeded Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman showed stupendous form in her 58-move victory over former Asian women's champion Bhagyashree Thipsay. Facing a Dutch defence, Vijayalakshmi, as white, opened up the queen side and her opponent did some damage on the king side. Accepting a sacrificed pawn, white lived dangerously before taking the sting off the black attack.

Vijayalakshmi exhibited class in her well-timed knight sacrifice on move 44 to win in style. Bhagyashree resigned when a two-pawn deficit in a rook ending was hard to bridge.

Uzbek girls in fine form

The three Uzbek girls had a field day with all of them winning against stronger opponents. In the first of them, IWM Anjela Khegay excelled in tactics with the black pieces. On move 16 the Uzbek girl sacrificed her knight to win two pawns which turned into a decisive advantage in her 39-move triumph over third- seeded Woman Grandmaster Zhao Xue of China.

In the second upset, IWM Elena Levushkina beat the higher rated Gu Xiaobing of China by sacrificing a pawn after adopting the Rossolimo attack as white against the Sicilian defence. Gu went for a tactic with black but lost after white found a superb intermezzo on move 27 to force instant resignation.

The third Uzbek player to win was the untitled Iroda Kamrakulova who shocked Vietnam's higher-rated Le Kieu Thien Kim with the black pieces from a closed Sicilian opening variation.

India's Saheli Barua was the first to lose when she was beaten by Maria Sergeeva of Kazakhstan in 32 moves with the white pieces while the last to lose was M. Kasturi who went down to Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam after a marathon battle lasting 52 moves.

Former two-time winner of the Asian women's championship Anupama Gokhale scored a comfortable 63-move victory over World under-10 girls' silver medallist Dronavalli Harika. Harika, the baby of the tournament sacrificed a pawn and did not have enough compensation. She watched the experienced player win a second pawn too and pocket the point in an opposite colour bishop ending.

The next youngest competitor, Anupama Konara of Sri Lanka was beaten by Yu Ting of China after 31 lopsided moves. Yu Ting's pieces did the talking and she outclassed her opponent with ease.

The seventh seed, IWM Li Ruofan of China was too strong for the oldest competitor, IWM Rani Hamid of Bangladesh. After a level opening, the Chinese exploited black's tactical mistake to win with the white pieces in 33 moves from a Sicilian defence. ``I made one mistake and lost,'' said 47-year-old Rani Hamid.

After three of her Bangladesh teammates were defeated, Khanam Afroza Bably held former World under-18 champion Aarthie Ramaswamy to a creditable 43-move draw from the white side of the king's Indian defence. Aarthie had the bad bishop against white's good knight when she offered and got a draw.

Ten rounds remain to be played in this 31-player Swiss format tournament. The top 10 will advance to the World women's championship to be held from November 24 in Moscow. Two rounds are slated for Tuesday.

lThe results (first round): S. Vijayalakshmi (Ind) bt Bhagyashree Thipsay (Ind); Nisha Mohota (Ind) bt Wang Yu (Chn); Zhao Xue (Chn) lost to Anjela Khegay (Uzb); Saheli Barua (Ind) lost to Sergeyeva Maria (Kaz); Le Kieu Thien Kim (Vie) lost to Iroda Kamarakulova (Uzb); Elena Levushkina (Uzb) bt Gu Xiaobing (Chn); Li Ruofan (Chn) bt Rani Hamid (Ban); Nazrana Khan (Ban) lost to Mekhri Geldeyeva (Trk); Nguyen Thi Thanh An (Vie) bt M. Kasturi (Ind); Y. Prathiba (Ind) lost to Swati Ghate (Ind); Huang Quian (Chn) bt Zakia Sultana (Ban); Anupama Konara (Sri) lost to Yu Ting (Chn); Anupama Gokhale (Ind) bt Dronavalli Harika (Ind); Khanam Afroza Bably (Ban) drew with Aarthie Ramaswamy (Ind); S. Meenakshi (Ind) bt V. Wijesuriya (Sri); Zhang Jilin (Chn) - bye.

The moves:

WGM S. Vijayalakshmi-IWM Bhagyashree Thipsay, round one, Dutch defence, A90: 1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 c6 5.Nf3 d5 6.0-0 Bd6 7.b3 Qe7 8.a4 a5 9.Ba3 Bxa3 10.Nxa3 0-0 11.Nc2 Bd7 12.Nce1 Be8 13.Nd3 Nbd7 14.Nfe5 Bh5 15.Qc2 Nxe5 16.Nxe5 Ng4 17.Nd3 Rf6 18.h3 Nh6 19.Rab1 Nf7 20.c5 e5 21.e3 e4 22.Nf4 Rh6 23.b4 Bf3 24.Bxf3 exf3 25.Qxf5 Rf8 26.Qg4 Ng5 27.h4 Ne4 28.Qxf3 g5 29.Qg4 Kh8 30.hxg5 Nxg5 31.Rbe1 axb4 32.Kg2 Rg8 33.Qf5 Rf8 34.Qe5+ Qxe5 35.dxe5 Ne4 36.Nd3 Rg6 37.Ra1 Rg7 38.Rfb1 Rgf7 39.Rb2 b3 40.Ra3 Ra8 41.Raxb3 Rxa4 42.Rxb7 Rxb7 43.Rxb7 Ra3 44.e6 Rxd3 45.e7 Nf6 46.Rb8+ Kg7 47.Rf8 Ne8 48.Rxe8 Kf7 49.Rc8 Kxe7 50.Rxc6 Rc3 51.Rc7+ Ke6 52.Rxh7 Rxc5 53.Rh6+ Kf5 54.Rh5+ Ke4 55.Rh4+ Ke5 56.Kf3 Rc1 57.Rh5+ Ke6 58.g4 1-0.

IWM Nisha Mohota-WFM Wang Yu, round one, Slav defence, D17: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nd5 8.Nxd5 cxd5 9.Ne3 Bg6 10.Nxd5 Qa5+ 11.Nc3 e5 12.e3 exd4 13.exd4 Bb4 14.Bb5 Bxc3+ 15.bxc3 Qxc3+ 16.Bd2 Qxd4 17.Qe2+ Qe4 18.Be3 Bf5 19.Rd1 a6 20.Bd3 Qe6 21.Bc4 Qe7 22.0-0 0-0 23.Qb2 Be4 24.Bd4 Qg5 25.f4 Qg6 26.f5 Bxf5 27.Qxb7 Be4 28.Qb2 Rac8 29.Rc1 Rc6 30.a5 h5 31.Qf2 Nf6 32.Be2 Rxc1 33.Rxc1 Ng4 34.Qg3 Re8 35.h3 Nh6 36.Qxg6 Bxg6 37.Bxa6 Nf5 38.Bf2 Ra8 39.Rc8+ Rxc8 40.Bxc8 Nd6 41.Ba6 Be4 42.Bc5 Nb7 43.Bb4 Nd8 44.Be2 Nc6 45.Bc3 g6 46.a6 Kf8 47.Bf3 Bxf3 48.gxf3 Ke7 49.Bd4 g5 50.a7 Nxa7 51.Bxa7 f5 52.Bb8 Ke6 53.Kf2 Kf6 54.Ke3 Kg6 55.f4 g4 56.h4 1-0.

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