Date:14/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/14/stories/2008121455231600.htm

Sport - Chess

Mary Ann on verge of retaining title

Arvind Aaron

CHENNAI: The defending champion, WGM Mary Ann Gomes, over top seed Kruttika Nadig to wrest a one point lead and assure herself a share of the title in the Sri Sai Ram Engineering Asian junior chess championship here on Saturday.

Mary Ann has seven points and In second place are Kruttika, P. Sivasankari and Bhakti Kulkarni. "I am not sure of this tie-break and will probably need a draw tomorrow in the final round," said Mary Ann.

Chief Arbiter Anantharam of Sivakasi confirmed the requirement of a draw for Mary Ann.

Indians dominate

On Saturday, it became clear that all the titles were going to be won by Indians to provide yet another proof of the host’s dominance.

In a French defence, Tarrasch variation, Kruttika as white sacrificed a knight to win a rook but this was a refuted line known to be winning for black.

"I knew this line about two years back, and used the passed pawn in the middle of the board to win," said Mary Ann.

In the open or boys group, Ashwin Jayaram leads with seven points. He is followed by Vidit Gujrathi and M.R. Lalith Babu on 6.5 points.

Ashwin delights

The top board battle saw fireworks all the way. Ashwin lit up the board with a flurry of sacrifices — first a bishop, then a rook and finally a queen — to win in 29 moves.

"Nitin could enter a line which would have made us repeat and draw, said Ashwin. Nitin missed that and fell into a queen sacrifice by Ashwin that led to a forced mate.

National junior champion Lalith Babu won a centre pawn and later a rook for knight to register an easy win against Priyadharshan. Vidit used his bishop power to outplay Debashis Das who played passively.

In the battle between the top two seeds, Adhiban won pawns in a good quality game to beat top seed S.P. Sethuraman.

World champion Viswanathan Anand will give away the prizes on Sunday. Anand was the champion when the event was last held in Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore, 1984).

Important results (round eight):

Boys: Ashwin Jayaram 7 bt S. Nitin 5.5, Lalith Babu 6.5 bt K. Priyadharshan 5.5, Rahul Sangma 6 drew with Vishnu Prasanna 6, Debashis Das 5 lost to Vidit Gujrathi 6.5, B. Adhiban 6 bt S.P. Sethuraman 5, Shyam Sundar 5 drew with Navin Kanna 5.5, Deep Sengupta 5 drew with Swapnil Dhopade 5, Shyam Nikhil 5.5 bt Mehar Chinna Reddy 4.5, Ramnath Bhuvanesh 5 drew with R. Ashwath 4.5.

Girls: Kruttika Nadig 6 lost to Mary Ann Gomes 7, Shalmali Gagare 5 lost to Bhakti Kulkarni 6, N. Raghavi 5 lost to P. Sivasankari 6, Padmini Rout 5.5 bt Kiran Mohanty 4.5, R. Preethi 4.5 drew with Shristi Shetty 4.5, Ch Divyasri 4.5 drew with S. Harini 4.5, P. Uthra 4 list to R. Bharathi 5.