The Hindu : Ramesh draws, Aarthie wins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 15, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Ramesh draws, Aarthie wins

Chennai Dec. 14. International Master R.B. Ramesh gave up a vital draw against the tailender but is still leading the First Saturday Grandmaster chess tournament after the sixth round at the Hungarian Chess Federation office complex at Budapest on Friday.

Ramesh's asking rate for the final Grandmaster norm grew to 4.5 points from the remaining five rounds.

Having a tough proposition on hand, Ramesh is still jointly in lead with four points from six games.

Hungarian International Masters, Csaba Balogh and Peter Horvath are tied with him at the top of the points table with four points.

The Chennai player was in trouble as soon as the opening phase of the game ended. Ramesh played the Panov-Botvinnik attack against the Caro-Kann defence of IM Martinez Lopez of Spain.

Black's 24th move gave the Spaniard a minimum extra pawn. But after 34 moves, Ramesh asked for a draw, which was surprisingly accepted by his opponent.

It was a rook and same colour bishop ending.

Ramesh still has to play IM Csaba Balogh, WGM Iweta Radziewicz, IM Adam Szeberenyi, WGM Szidonia Vajda and GM Emil Anka.

Looking at the four wins he made at the tape to win the British Championship at Torquay earlier this year, this field looks comparatively less tough.

International Woman Master Aarthie Ramaswamy scored her third straight victory to draw closer to the woman Grandmaster norm in the International Master Group `B' Tournament.

The six round upset win over IM Attila Schneider of Hungary helped her bridge the lead of Adam Popovics of Hungary.

Aarthie is on 4.5 points and needs three more points from the last five rounds to complete her woman Gandmaster norm. Popovics of Hungary who is looking for an IM norm is leading with five points from six games.

Aarthie faced a modern defence and managed to trap Schneider's queen which had just accepted the poisoned pawn.

Using the queen versus bishop and knight advantage with other pieces on the board, Aarthie needed 42 moves before forcing black to resign. It was a splendid win for Aarthie using her knowledge of the openings.

In her last five rounds, Aarthie takes on one player lower rated than herself and four rated above her.

Either way, she will need to score at least one more win and draw the remaining four games.

She also has her game against the leader Popovics yet to come.— Our Chess Correspondent

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