The Hindu : It's Harika vs. Eesha

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 08, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

It's Harika vs. Eesha

By Rakesh Rao

PUNE SEPT. 7 . Battle lines for the title-clash are clearly drawn in the National women's chess championship here. After the 10th and penultimate round here on Saturday, second seed Dronavalli Harika and local favourite Eesha Karavade have each other for company at the top with 8.5 points.

On Sunday, Eesha plays with white pieces against Harika and needs just a draw to claim the biggest title of her career. Harika, needing no reminding that she has an inferior progressive score against Eesha, is expected to go all out for a win. It is this reason that points to a well-fought duel between these two Wipro-sponsored girls.

After a friendly five-move draw in the morning with Swati Mohota, Eesha defeated H. Nilavoli in 39 moves. Harika, conqueror of Anuradha Beniwal in the ninth round, took longer to get the better of Swati.

The results : 10th round : D. Harika (8.5) bt Swati Mohota (7.5); Eesha Karavade (8.5) bt H. Nilavoli (6.5); M. Saimeera (7.5) drew with Dolan Champa Bose (7); Y. Pratibha (7.5) bt J. E. Kavitha (6.5); Kruttika Nadig (7) drew with Anuradha Beniwal (7); Mary Ann Gomes (7.5) bt Saheli Dhar-Barua (6); Nisha Mohota (7) bt Ramya Krishna Inapuri (6); Nabeela Farheen (6) lost to Anupama Gokhale (7); Purabi Singha (6) lost to Tania Sachdev (7); M. Rajdarshni (6.5) drew with M. Safira Shanaz (6.5); Anuprita Patil (6) lost to Amruta Mokal (7); Baisakhi Das (6.5) bt Mrunalini Kunte-Aurangabadkar (5.5); Sreeparna Chakraborty (6) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (6); N. Vinuthna (6.5) bt M. R. Sangeetha (5.5); Madhuri Patil (6) drew with P. Priya (6); Mahima Raj Mohan (6.5) bt Supriya Maji (5.5); M. Kasturi (6) bt Alka Das (5.5); Ketki Kulkarni (5) lost to M. Priyadarshini (6); Sneha Ghatpande (6) bt E. Sheena (5); Swati Sengupta (5.5) drew with Ashwini Kulkarni (5.5); Pushpalata Mangal (5) lost to K. Chandra Hawsa (6); Bhakti Kulkarni (5) lost to C. V. Rajalaskhmi (6); N. Pragna Devi (6) bt Jayashree Sankpal (5); Pooja Rathod (5.5) drw with P. Laxmi Sahiti (5.5); Mitali Patil (6) bt S. Banupriya (5); N. Raghavi (6) bt Priyanka Vora (5); Kiran Mohanty (6) bt Aparna Dhatrak (5); Snehal Mahajan (5.5) bt M. Kavana (5); L. Ishwarya Shobana (5.5) bt Dhara Gupta (4.5); Siddhali Shetye (4.5) lost to S. Aneeqha Tahseen (5.5).

Ninth round : Swati drew with Eesha; Anuradha lost to Harika; Saimeera bt Purabi; Safira lost to Pratibha; Tania drew with Anuprita; Sangeetha lost to Krutika; Kavitha bt Vinuthna; Nilavoli bt Mahima; Soumya lost to Mary; Dolan bt Madhuri; Nisha bt Rajalakshmi; Saheli bt Jayashree; Amruta bt Kasturi; Anupama bt Pooja; Supriya drew with Sreeparna; Ramya bt Sneha; Banupriya lost to Nabeela; Chandra Hawsa lost to Rajdarshni; Priya bt Bhakti; Mrunalini bt Devengi; Sheena drew with Laxmi; Deepali Arvandekar lost to Baisakhi; Alka bt Snehal Mahajan; Aparna drew with Raghavi; Priyadarshini bt Junmoni Gogoi; Ashwini bt Mohita Agarwal; Nitumoni Gogoi lost to Pushpalata; Krian bt Shraddha Mohanan; Niruz Durah Gogoi lost to Ketki; Dhara drew with Siddhali.

Top-10 11th round pairings : Eesha-Harika; Swati-Pratibha; Mary-Saimeera; Dolan-Nisha; Anupama-Kruttika; Tania-Anuradha; Amruta-Vinuthna; Safira-Mahima; Nilavoli-Rajdarshini; Kavitha-Baisakhi.

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