The Hindu : Women's National 'A' to become WGM tourney

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Women's National 'A' to become WGM tourney
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 19. World junior champion and Woman Grandmaster Koneru Humpy will enjoy a direct seeding in the Women's National `A' chess championship scheduled to be held at Lucknow in May.

According to the All India Chess Federation secretary, Mr. P.T. Ummer Koya, the federation rules would be amended to allow Humpy to play the premier championship, from which the top- four finishers would form the Indian team for the Olympiad.

At present, four direct seeds from the previous National `A' and 10 qualifiers from National `B' form the field in the 14-player all-play-all format. Humpy's inclusion will make it a 15-player field.

Mr. Koya insisted that unlike in the past, Humpy would have no choice but to play in the championship. ``Since two WGMs (in this case, S. Vijayalakshmi and Humpy) are enough to get the National championship the status of a WGM-event, the AICF will make sure that Humpy plays.

This will also offer an opportunity for other players to get a WGM-norm from the championship,'' said Mr. Koya here on Tuesday.

He also said that the six-member Indian men's team for the Olympiad would attend a training camp under Evegeny Vladimirov from May 1 at Kozhikode.

``The second camp, under Valeri Salov, will be held in August,'' said Mr. Koya.

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