Five Indian women for World championship

CHENNAI, SEPT. 12. Indian dominance of continental women's chess was the noticeable feature of the 9th Asian Women's chess championship that concluded in Chennai on Wednesday. Indians took four of the top seven qualifying places pushing the formidable Chinese to pick the other slots. This is no mean achievement since the Chinese are holders of the Chess Olympiad title as also the individual World Women's title.

Although most of our qualifiers did not win the last round, four players advanced from here making the list of Indian qualifiers to five. Barring the qualification of top seed Vijayalakshmi, the other three are surprise packets considering that their starting ranks were 10 (Swati Ghate), 14 (Aarthie) and 18 (Nisha Mohota).

Pallavi Shah, who is our zone champion, has been directly seeded. The reigning World Junior Girls champion, Koneru Humpy, who was thought to have a seeding, will have to wait until next year to play in the World championship.

Although China's Li Ruofan clinched the title, Indians dominated, picking up four places. The Chinese seeded 2, 3 and 6 did not make it.

Strangely, Vijayalakshmi was the only Woman Grandmaster to make the qualifying mark from this event. The other two WGMs, from China and Turkmenistan, failed to qualify. India will be sending five women to Moscow. The Indian men will also have five representation--V. Anand (seeded, being world champion), K. Sasikiran (zone champion), D. Barua, S.S. Ganguly and P. Harikrishna.

Thus, India will be sending ten players to the World championships, which will be a record.

The Indian qualifiers: Vijayalakshmi, 22, of Indian Airlines, Chennai will be our best bet at Moscow. Last year in New Delhi she went out early but has vastly improved since and should be a candidate for the title itself. Her father, Mr. Subbaraman, is her trainer. She holds a men's IM title and is the most feared opponent for many.

Nisha Mohota, 21, of LIC, Kolkata is a surprise qualifier who started of very well. Her coach is her father, Mr. Nirmal Kumar Mohota. She is hoping that the Indian Chess Federation would organise a coaching camp before the Moscow event. Nisha noted with pleasure that all her LIC chess colleagues would be on the Moscow flight. The other two being Pallavi Shah and Swati Ghate. Nisha said a notebook computer would benefit her immensely for she was able to use a borrowed computer from Bhagyashree Thipsay and Swati Ghate during this event. At home she uses a desktop computer and said she couldn't afford the Rs. 80,000 which is the minimum requirement for a portable computer.

Aarthie Ramaswamy, 20, Chennai collegian is sponsored by WIPRO and can vary her playing level when the challenge is up. She is an attacking player for whom the knock out system may not suit. But with experience, she will pose a threat to many Chinese and Georgians at Moscow. She is a former World Under-18 Girls champion and has a natural flair for attack.

Swati Ghate, 22, is employed by LIC, Pune. She is a gifted positional player. Playing in Chennai for the first time, she won seven games and lost four to qualify despite a final round loss. She became the first Indian lady to qualify for the National `A' when she remained unconquered in the National `B' at Nagpur this July. - Arvind Aaron,

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