The Hindu : Harika's tryst with history

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 09, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Harika's tryst with history

By Rakesh Rao

PUNE SEPT. 8. Dronavalli Harika raised her level of play just when she needed to and overpowered local favourite Eesha Karavade to become the youngest-ever champion of the National women's `B' chess championship here on Sunday.

The second seed Harika, who will turn 12 in January next, won her first women's title in great style by launching a late kingside offence and winning her English Opening game in 43 moves.

The game appeared to be heading for a draw but once Harika made the breakthrough, she never loosened her grip over the 14-year-old Eesha, seeded eight.

Harika, the reigning Asian (under-18) and National junior champion from Guntur, had just about managed to take the 10th and last qualifying slot in 2001. In the previous year at Kozhikode, Harika had become the youngest-ever to qualify for the National `A'.

This time, Harika proved her class in a telling manner by finishing with 9.5 points, one clear of the field.

For runner-up Eesha, too, this was her best ever finish in the championship. As anticipated, the Swati Mohota-Y. Pratibha match as well as the one involving Mary Ann Gomes and M. Saimeera ended in quick draws. With a tally of eight points each, the quartet filled the placings from three to six.

For the remaining four qualifying slots for the next National `A', there were fierce battles. Tania Sachdev, last year's runner-up, checkmated her dear friend Anuradha Beniwal to take the seventh spot.

The top seed Nisha Mohota, who lost the qualifying berth narrowly last year, made it by getting past Dolan Champa Bose. In fact, Dolan, playing white, tried too hard to force a win but her desperation helped Nisha tighten the screws and win.

J.E. Kavitha and Kruttika Nadig joined Mary Ann Gomes as the first-timers for National `A'. Kavitha defeated Baisakhi Das while Kruttika made by drawing with five-time National champion Anupama Gokhale.

Since both Kruttika and Anupama had identical tallies, including their progressive scores, the `tie' was broken by applying `cut' progressive. Here, Kruttika was found better placed.

Like Anupama, M. Safira Shanaz, too, failed to retain her place in the National `A'.

She lost to Mahima Raj Mohan and fell out of contention. Safira had to win today and her superior progressive score could have helped her finish ninth. But that was not to be the case.

The results: 11th round: Eesha Karavade (8.5) lost to Dronavalli Harika (9.5); Swati Mohota (8) drew with Y. Pratibha (8); Mary Ann Gomes (8) drew with M. Saimeera (8); Dolan Champa Bose (7) lost to Nisha Mohota (8); Anupama Gokhale (7.5) drew with Kruttika Nadig (7.5); Tania Sachdev (8) bt Anuradha Beniwal (7); Amruta Mokal (7) lost to N. Vinuthna (7.5); M. Safira Shanaz (6.5) lost to Mahima Raj Mohan (7.5); H. Nilavoli (6.5) lost to M. Rajdarshni (7.5); J.E. Kavitha (7.5) bt Baisakhi Das (6.5); Saheli Dhar-Barua (6.5) drew with S. Nabeela Farheen (6.5); C.V. Rajalakshmi (6.5) drew with M. Kasturi (6.5); M. Priyadarshini (6.5) drew with Madhuri Patil (6.5); N. Raghavi (6.5) drew with Sreeparna Chakraborty (6.5); P. Priya (6.5) drew with Kiran Mohanty (6.5); Soumya Swaminathan (7) bt Sneha Ghatpande (6); Anuprita Patil (7) bt K. Chandra Hawsa (6); Ramya Krishna Inapuri (7) bt N. Pragna Patvi (6); Mrunalini Kunte-Aurangabadkar (5.5) lost to Supriya Maji (6.5); M.R. Sangeetha (6.5) bt Swati Sengupta (5.5); S. Aneeqha Tahseen (6.5) bt Ashwini Kulkarni (5.5); P. Laxmi Sahiti (6.5) bt Snehal Mahajan (5.5); Alka Das (6) drew with Pooja Rathod (6); Deepali Arvandekar (6) drew with L. Iswarya Shobana (6); E. Sheena (6) bt K. Jennitha Anto (5); Priyanka Vora (5) lost to S.R. Radha (6); Junmoni Gogoi (5) lost to Pushpalata Mangal (6); Jayashree Sankpal (5) lost to P. Sudha (6); S. Banupriya (5.5) drew with R. Shakthi Saranya (5.5); Aparna Dhatrak (5.5) drew with V.K. Sindhu (5.5); Nitumoni Gogoi (5.5) drew with Ketki Kulkarni (5.5); M. Kavana (5) lost to Bhakti Kulkarni (6); V. Mrinalini (5) lost to Mohita Agarwal (5.5); R. Hemalatha (4.5) lost to Devangi Patankar (5.5); Dhara Gupta (5.5) bt Shahjabeen (4.5); Siddhali Shetye (5) drew with B.K. Srivani (5); Saba Mhate (5.5) bt Vijaya Chavan (4.5); Zeal Mehta (4) lost to Parveen Afsha (5); Shradha Mohanan (5) bt Pranjali Chandratre (4); Pampa Dasgupta (5) bt Shilpa Mehra (4); Nirmala Nesayya (4) lost to Rupumoni Dowarah (5); Vidya Fotto (5) bt Amisha Pable (4); Sanjana Raj (5) bt G. Lalitha (4); Niruz Durah Gogoi (4) lost to Soumya Vaze (5); M.S. Nagaratna (5) bt L. Keroda Devi (4); P.D. Mini (5) bt Manisha Singh (4); Shashi Prabha Singh (4.5) bt Ushaben Shah (4); Jyoti Nishad (4) drew with Abhilasha Yadav (4); Anu Kapoor (4.5) bt Lalitha Bhaskar (3); Gayatri Shahane (3) lost to Ch. Rajyalakshmi (4); Surbhi Mehra (4) bt Priyanka Inampudi (3); V. Mageshwari (3.5) drew with L. Abemu (3.5); Vandita Trivedi (4) bt Ritika Malhotra (1.5); Sukhjeet Kaur (2.5) bt I. Sudharani (2); Sumita (4) bye.

Final standings (top-10): 1. Dronavalli Harika (9.5), 2. Eesha Karavade (8.5), 3-8. M. Saimeera, Swati Mohota, Y. Pratibha, Mary Ann Gomes, Tania Sachdev and Nisha Mohota (8 each), 9-10. J.E. Kavitha and Kruttika Nadig (7.5 each).

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