Date:12/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/12/stories/2008121255741700.htm

Sport - Chess

Good win helps Mary Ann Gomes join leaders

Arvind Aaron

Chennai: Draws on the top boards allowed the leaderboard in both the boys’ and girls’ sections to get longer.

Defending champion WGM Mary Ann Gomes hunted black’s king to defeat Kiran Mohanty to join Kruttika Nadig and Bhakti Kulkarni in the lead with five points at the end of the sixth round in the Sri Sai Ram Engineering Asian chess championship here on Thursday.

On the top table, Kruttika and Bhakti fought a fierce 56-move draw. World under-14 girls’ champion Padmini Rout is in fourth place on 4.5 points.

Two more at the top

In the boys’ section, IM Ashwin Jayaram and National junior champion M.R. Lalith Babu joined Adhiban and Vidit in the lead with five points.

Vidit Gujrathi, as white, did well to hold the World under-16 champion Adhiban to a draw in 25 moves from a king’s Indian defence. Ashwin played a nice 28-move game to defeat overnight joint leader Vishnu Prasanna. He used black’s centralised king to the maximum as his tactics flowed freely following a bishop sacrifice.

Lalith Babu benefited from the unforced mistakes of Debashis Das to win in 43 moves from a queen and rooks game.

Important results (round six, Indians unless mentioned): Boys: Vidit Gujrathi 5 drew with B. Adhiban 5, Ashwin Jayaram 5 bt Vishnu Prasanna 4.5, Shyam Nikhil 4.5 drew with S. Nitin 4.5, M.R. Lalith Babu 5 bt Debashis Das 4, Deep Sengupta 4.5 bt G.A. Stany 3.5, Shyam Sundar 4.5 bt Swapnil Dhopade 3.5, Pranav Shetty 3.5 lost to Rahul Sangma 4.5, Akshat Khamparia 3 lost to K. Priyadharshan 4.5, J.S. Daklia 3 lost to S.P. Sethuraman 4, P. Karthikeyan 4 bt A.M. Imran (Ban) 3.

Girls: Bhakti Kulkarni 5 drew with Kruttika Nadig 5, Mary Ann Gomes 5 bt Kiran Mohanty 3.5, Shalmali Gagare 4 drew with P. Sivasankari 4, R. Preethi 3 lost to Padmini Rout 4.5, Ch. Divyasri 3 lost to R. Bharathi 4, P. Uthra 4 bt Meenu Rajendran 3, N. Raghavi 4 bt Shristi Shetty 3.