The Hindu : Vijayalakshmi crushes Zhu Chen as India 'A' stuns China

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 11, 2003

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Sport - Chess

Vijayalakshmi crushes Zhu Chen as India 'A' stuns China

By Rakesh Rao

GREAT WIN VIJI: WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy (left) congratulates WGM S. Vijayalakshmi, who defeated World champion Zhu Chen of China, to help India `A' score a historic 2-1 victory in the third round of the Asian team chess championship at Jodhpur on Thursday. The other members of the team, Nisha Mohota (second from left), who drew with World Cup winner Xu Yuhua, and D. Harika are obviously thrilled at the feat. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy

JODHPUR APRIL 10. When it comes to playing for the country, Woman Grandmaster S. Vijayalakshmi's achievements can be compared to the heroics of Leander Paes in Davis Cup.

If Leander has made a habit of making a mockery of ATP rankings while spearheading India to some memorable victories in the Davis Cup arena, Vijayalakshmi has done the same in a premier team event like the Olympiad. Silver medals on the top board in the Olympiads of 2000 and 2002 stand as testimony of Vijayalakshmi's capabilities.

Thursday was one such day in the Asian team chess championship when Vijayalakshmi scripted a fairy tale victory over World champion Zhu Chen to shape a truly historic 2-1 verdict for India `A' over holder China, the undisputed champion side in the world today.

The result raised the tally of India `A' to 6.5 points and made it joint leader with Vietnam. China along with India `C', which blanked Bangladesh, is on six points.

This top-board stunner at the Abhay Days Hotel came after Nisha Mohota had drawn in 31 moves of Carokann with World Cup champion Xu Yuhua on the second board. In her career, Nisha had not faced a stronger woman rival than Xu Yuhua, with a rating of 2489. So it was quite an achievement for Nisha to come out of the game with honours even.

An even bigger margin of victory looked very much possible until WGM and National champion Aarthie Ramaswamy missed the winning line against Huang Qian. The Chinese girl quickly seized her chance to force a draw through repeated rook-checks in 66 moves.

Aarthie was surely disappointed for not having contributed to the Indian triumph to the maximum extent possible, but there was joy all around. After all, it was the biggest ever victory for India's women team.

Vijayalakshmi, who thought Zhu Chen tried to surprise her by adopting Grunfeld, played flawlessly. Viji's relentless king-side attack, backed by the complete harmony of pieces raring to join the action, kept the World champion guessing and defending.

A timely rook-sacrifice for a minor-piece and a pawn, on the king-bishop file, signalled further trouble for Zhu. The Chinese, ranked sixth in the world with a rating of 2492, used much of her time in finding a way out but found the noose tightening. She had just three minutes to Vijayalakshmi's 27 at one stage.

In the last part of the act, Viji sacrificed a knight. This left Zhu's king at the mercy of Vijayalakshmi's queen and rook. With just seconds remaining on her clock, Zhu offered a rook and off the next move, accepted the inevitable. "I guess, I did not do anything wrong today," was how a jubilant Vijayalakshmi chose to describe her day's work. "I've scored several big wins in the past but this one is special because it came against the current World champion," she explained.

Nisha said, "this victory against China is sure to boost our confidence for the matches ahead. But the job will only be done when we win the gold." Surely, the job is far from done.

This landmark victory pushed into background several other notable performances.

One such gritty show came from Koneru Humpy, who once again proved that when it comes to resilience, there are not many like her in the country's chess circles.

Looking down and out at one stage, Humpy fought K. Sasikiran in a battle lasting 121 moves, spread over five hours, to force a draw. In this much-awaited battle between the host's strongest male player in the competition and the country's strongest-ever female player, Humpy's fighting abilities came to the fore like never before.

After Sasikiran gradually enlarged his early advantage to reach an ending where he had a queen and two connected pawns for Humpy's queen, the outcome was not difficult to guess. But none had reckoned with Humpy's never-say-die approach.

Humpy kept alive possibilities of forcing a draw through perpetual checks while Sasikiran searched in vain for victory.

Sasikiran thought that fatigue could be one of the reasons for missing what looked like a straightforward victory. "I don't know, but I should have seen more," accepted Sasikiran, who failed to beat Humpy when they last met in the 2002 British championship.

The half-point gained by Humpy helped India `B' draw 2-2 with India `A'. On the second board, Pravin Thipsay held Surya Sekhar Ganguly in the other battle involving Grandmasters. R.B. Ramesh of India `B' nailed P. Hari Krishna for the third time in their last five decisive contests after Dibyendu Barua had opened the tally for India `A' at the expense of Tejas Bakre.

Earlier, India `C' missed out on a golden opportunity to upstage leader Vietnam. Neelotpal Das extricated himself from a difficult position against GM Dao Thien Hai on the top board to reach a seemingly winning position. However, Das tried too hard to force the issue and lost.

Lanka Ravi came up with another impressive display and held GM Nguyen Anh Dung in just 19 moves. Dinesh Kumar Sharma benefited as GM Tu Hong Thong sacrificed a pawn early and later a minor piece for initiative. Dinesh staved off the queen-side offensive and won easily. However, Roktim Bandyopadhyay failed to make the most of his promising position and eventually settled for a draw against the unrated Bao Quang.

The results (third round):

Men's event:

Vietnam (8.5) drew with India `C' (8) 2-2 (Dao Thien Hai bt Neelotpal Das; Nguyen Anh Dung drew with Lanka Ravi; Tu Hoang Thang lost to Dinesh Kumar Sharma; Bao Quang drew with Roktim Bandyopadhyay).

India `B' (7) drew with India `A' (7) 2-2 (Koneru Humpy drew with K. Sasikiran; Pravin Thipsay drew with Surya Sekhar Ganguly, R. B. Ramesh bt P. Hari Krishna; Tejas Bakre lost to Dibyendu Barua).

China (8.5) bt Iran (5) 4-0 (Ye Jiangchuan bt Ehsan Ghaem Maghami; Zhang Zhong bt Morteza Mahjoob; Xu Jun bt Ghani; Zhang Pengxiang bt Darban Morteza).

Kazakshtan (7.5) bt Uzbekistan (5) 3-1 (Darmen Sadvakasov bt Rustam Kasimdzhanov; Pavel Kotsur drew with Saydali Yuldashev; Nurlan Ibrayev drew with Shukhrat Safin; Bhaktiyan Askarov bt Dzhumaev Marat).

Turkmenistan (6) bt Malaysia (5.5) 2.5-1.5 (Amanmurat Kakageldiev drew with Wong Zi Jing; Meylis Annaberdeiv bt Marcus Chan; Artyk Ovezov drew with Nicholas Chan; Odeev Hadjar drew with Ismail Ahmed).

Kyrgyzstan (4) bt Sri Lanka (3) 3-1 (Milan Turpanov bt G. L. Wijesuriya; Algis Shukuraliev bt C. K. D. Fonseka; Natan Ziberman lost to G. C. Anuruddha; Andrey Umarbekov bt D. R. N. K. B. Dehigama).

Macau (3) — bye.

Women's event:

India `A' (6.5) bt China (6) 2-1 (S. Vijaylakshmi bt Zhu Chen; Nisha Mohota drew with Xu Yuhua; Aarthie Ramaswamy bt Huang Qin).

Vietnam (6.5) bt Iran (5) 2.5-0.5 (Hoang Thang Trang bt Atousa Pourkashian; Nguyen Thi Thanh Ah drew with Shadi Paridar; Li Kiev Thien Kim bt Mahini Salman).

India `B' (5.5) drew with Kazakhstan (5) 1.5-1.5 (S. Meenakshi bt Maria Sergeyeva; Swati Ghate lost to Alfiya Turebayeva; Tania Sachdev drew with Assya Son).

India `C' (6) bt Bangladesh (2) 3-0 (Eesha Karavade bt Rani Hamid; Saheli Dhar-Barua bt Zakia Sultana; Anupama Gokhale bt Afroza Khanam).

Kyrgyzstsan (4) bt Turkmenistan (2.5) 2-1 (Irina Ostry lost to Maisa Ovesova; Aleksandra Samaganova bt Bahar Hallaeva; Janyl Tilenbaeva bt Eva Myalikgulyeva).

Malaysia (3.5) bt Sri Lanka (1.5) 2.5-0.5 (Siti Zulaika bt Vineetha Wijesuriya; Roslina Marmona bt Tushari Mahawatha; Lim Han Ying drew with Koswatte Thalini).

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