The Hindu : Vijayalakshmi begins in style

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 06, 2002

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Sport - Chess

Vijayalakshmi begins in style

By Rakesh Rao

Eesha Karavade (right) who held Saheli Dhar Barua in the first round of the women's National `A' chess championship at Lucknow on Sunday. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy

LUCKNOW MAY 5. In a battle between two five-time National champions, Bhagyashree Thipsay slipped after a seemingly good take off. The 40-year-old veteran could do little as S. Vijayalakshmi stepped on her toes and raced away to a rather comfortable victory.

With this first decisive result of the women's National `A' chess championship, Vijayalakshmi's campaign for a record sixth title began in a resounding manner on Sunday.

Even as four out of six boards produced well-fought draws, Sai Meera walked out of the PICUP Auditorium as the only other winner of the day. The studious-looking Meera benefitted immemsely from a series of dubious moves made by Safira Shanaz from a position where a draw seemed a fair result.

Among the drawn matches, the battle involving debutant Eesha Karavade and Saheli Dhar-Barua was an eventful one. All credit to Eesha for displaying some resolute defensive skills when the chips were down. Saheli obtained a fairly comfortable position in their Sicilian Defence game and gained a pawn. But Eesha gradually inched back into the game once Saheli made a premature pawn-roll on the kingside. Despite being down a pawn, Eesha had improved her position and raised visions of a draw. Suddenly, Eesha faltered and gave back the initiative to Saheli. However, with both players having less than a minute on their clocks, Saheli blundered and allowed Eesha to not only exchange the bishops but also win the lone pawn on the board. With both players left with a rook each and very little time, draw was agreed after 67 moves.

Much before the day's longest match ended, Vijayalakshmi had completed an important victory at the expense of Bhagyashree, one of the strong contenders. Still, Vijayalakshmi chose to underplay her victory.

In Ruy Lopez, where both players did not play very correctly in the opening phase, Bhagyashree gave a pawn for initiative. However, Bhagyashree failed to follow the right continuation and soon found herself in an inferior position. She took too much time to figure out an escape route and as a result, faced severe time-pressure. A composed Vijayalakshmi played accurately and kept her rival guessing. In her race against the clock, Bhagyashree made a series of poor moves and eventually ran out of time on the 37th move. But the result had become clear much earlier.

The match involving Sai Meera and Safira Shanaz saw both players dash off moves to see through the first time-control. Even as the two were reeling off moves in a flash, shocking was the fact that there was no arbiter to note the moves made by the players. Later, when it was time to note down the moves, both players looked up for an arbiter to give them the missing moves but there was none.

At this point, an embarrassed Chief Arbiter, A.N. Venkatesan, stopped the clock and asked the players move to another board reconstruct the position so that they could replay the moves and note them down. In what appeared to be a rather insensitive gesture, he asked the players to hurry up even as the players did their best to replay the continuation. Later, the players returned to their board and played on. Sai Meera closed the match after 53 moves.

But it is indeed a pity that the organisers as well as the All India Chess Federation have paid very little attention to the technical details pertaining to a championship of this stature.

How can just three arbiters be expected to monitor six boards, assuming that players on more than three boards come under time-pressure? Secondly, what prevented the AICF to ensure the use of digitals clocks for this championship? After all, just six clocks in working order and a couple in reserves, were required.

Coming back to the on-board action, Aarthie Ramaswamy broke the sequence of defeats at the hands of Chennai-mate S. Meenakshi in the last two editions of the championship and managed an easy draw. After obtaining a comfortable position in Ruy Lopez, Aarthie lost her way. Adopting a cautious approach, she did not press too hard and settled for a draw in 27 moves.

Similary, Anupama Gokhale also did not find the right course following a good start in the Sicilian Defence game against Swati Ghate. After the exchange of queens, a poor pawn-move on the queen's side by Anupama allowed Swati's pieces to breathe freely. This listless match lasted 37 moves.

Earlier, Dolan Champa Bose and Harika Dronavalli had quickly drawn their French Defence game following repetition of moves.

The results:

First round: Anupama Gokhale drew with Swati Ghate; Aarthie Ramaswamy drew with S. Meenakshi; Sai Meera bt Safira Shanaz; Bhagyashree Thipsay lost to S. Vijayalakshmi; Dolan Champa Bose drew with Harika Dronavalli; Tania Sachdev bye.

Monday's pairings (second round): Vijayalakshmi-Dolan; Eesha-Bhagyashree; Safira-Saheli; Meenakshi-Meera; Swati-Aarthie; Tania-Anupama; Harika bye; (third round) : Aarthie-Tania; Meera-Swati; Saheli-Meenakshi; Bhagyashree-Safira; Dolan-Eesha; Harika-Viji; Anupama bye.

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