Sport - Chess   

Harika emerges champion

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 8. Despite a five-way tie, the element of excitement was missing as 11-year-old Harika Dronvalli easily defended the National junior girls' chess title at the Babu Samaj Kendra hall here on Tuesday.

This morning, three other players were also in contention for the top prize of Rs. 12,000 but Harika did not have to worry much as Saheli Nath and Mahima Rajmohan drew their matches in just 10 moves on the second board.

Thereafter, Harika needed only a draw against the remaining challenger Nimmy A. George to reach seven points and emerge with the best progressive score in the NDMC-sponsored event.

Harika's progressive score of 38.5 points was one better than that of Saheli, who received Rs. 8,000. Mahima with 37 points came next and collected Rs. 5,000. H. Nilavoli, who joined the seven-pointers with a last-round victory over M. Priyadarshini, was placed fourth with a progressive count of 34.5, just half-a-point better than the tally accumulated by Nimmy. Nilavoli's effort was worth Rs. 3,000 while Nimmy had to remain satisfied with Rs. 2,000.

Once the second board battle had ended in a draw, Harika chose to take it easy. She simplified the position by exchanging all the major pieces and drew after 43 moves following a Reti Opening.

This was Harika's fourth major title of the year. She had won the Asian (under-18), the Asian (under-12) and, precisely a month back, the National women's `B' before coming here.

Harika will now be part of the Indian challenge in the World Cup at Hyderabad later in the week. She will also be representing the country in the World Youth championship at Athens and the World junior championship in Goa, later this year.

P. Priya defeated Amruta Mokal to take the sixth spot with 6.5 points. C. Delphin, who matched Priya's tally by scoring over Kruttika Nadig, was seventh.

Meanwhile, an embarrassing situation for the organisers was averted by an alert arbiter, Mr. Ishaq Mohammad, after the `final' standing had Nimmy in the fourth spot, ahead of Nilavoli. Mercifully, a manual double check of the progressive score ensured that there was no injustice done to Nilavoli. As a result, she is now eligible to be part of the team for the next Asian junior championship, being planned in India.

The results (ninth round): Harika Dronavalli (7) drew with Nimmy A. George (7); Saheli Nath (7) drew with Mahima Rajmohan (7); M. Priyadarshini (5.5) lost to H. Nilavoli (7); Kruttika Nadig (5.5) lost to C. Delphin (6.5); P. Priya (6.5) bt Amruta Mokal (5.5); Eesha Karavade (6) bt Anuradha Beniwal (5.5); C. V. Rajalakshmi (6) bt Y. Pratibha (5); S. Banupriya (5) lost to N. Vinuthana (6); Aneeqha Tahseen (5) lost to J. E. Kavitha (6); Malar Selvi (6) bt Kiran Monisha Mohanty (5); Suchandra Chatterjee (5) lost to Alka Das (6); M. Kasturi (5.5) bt M. Rajadarshini (4.5); E. Shabina (4.5) lost to Nabeela Farheen (5.5); Anuprita Patil (4) lost to N. Sandhya (5.5); Anoori Shah (4.5) drew with Ayushi Rai Choudhury (4.5); Nivanthee Jayaraj (4) lost to Baisakhi Das (5); Laxmi Sahiti (5) bt Pragna Patvi (4); Dhara Gupta (4.5) drew with Swetha Narayanan (4.5); Divya Gupta (4) lost to Rupinder Deep Kaur (5); Supriya Maji (3.5) lost to Namita V. Mhetar (5); Zonunmawii (3.5) lost to Ramya Krishna (4.5); Madhuri Patil (3.5) lost to Aswathy Balagopalan (4.5); Usha Upadhyay (3.5) lost to Preeti Chahal (4); Surabhi Bhargava (3) lost to Ekta Jha (4); Mamta Agarwal (4) bt M. Sravya (4); Pooja Bhartiya (3) lost to Bhavya Khattar (3); Bhagyashree Shah (3) lost to Pallavi Dutta (4); Ritika Malhotra (4) bt Pritti Oka (2.5); Swati Rajpurohit (2.5) lost to Priyanka S. (3.5); Kanchan Rawat (2) lost to Akanksha Narain (3); H. Lalmuankimi (1) lost to Nitya Ahuja (2); Alisha Ashta (3) bye.

The standings: 1-5. Harika Dronavalli, Saheli Nath, Mahima Rajmohan, H. Nilavoli, Nimmy A. George (7 each); 6-7. P. Priya, C. Delphin (6.5 each), 8-13. P. Malar Selvi, N. Vinuthana, C. V. Rajalakshmi, Alka Das, Eesha Karavade and J. E. Kavitha (six each); 14-20. Kruttika Nadig, Anuradha Beniwal, Amruta Mokal, Nabeela Farheen, M. Priyadarshini, M. Kasturi and N. Sandhya (5.5 each).

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