Tuesday, Apr 15, 2003
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Chess
By Rakesh Rao
CONGRATULATIONS! Lanka Ravi (right) and Eesha Karavade congratulate each other after achieving their Grandmaster and WIM norms respectively in the Asian team chess championship at Jodhpur on Monday. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy
Monday presented one such occasion when Thipsay pulled out a trick from his old notes to stun China's in-form Zhang Zhong. What more, Thipsay's triumph completed an unprecedented 2.5-1.5 victory for India `B' in the eighth round of the Asian team chess championship here. ``I don't remember China ever losing to any Asian country,'' said Thipsay, who has been part of majority of India's campaigns in major championship for nearly two decades. The victory was also of the biggest in Thipsay's long career. Even as the women's competition went along expected lines with pre-match favourites racing away to big victories, with China well on course of retaining the title, the men's standings witnessed a complete turnabout at the top. However, the victory for India `B' put into shade Lanka Ravi's maiden Grandmaster norm and Eesha Karavade's second Woman International Master norm, both spread over seven games. Before China crashed to a rare defeat, India `A' seized the opportunity to emerge as the leader for once. Playing without K. Sasikiran, India `A' expectedly blanked Sri Lanka 4-0 and jumped to 18.5 points — one clear of China. Later, the 1-3 defeat of overnight second-placed Vietnam at the hands of Kazakhstan also made things better for the Indian teams. The loss restricted Vietnam's tally to 16 and made sure it got a bye in the eighth round. This also means that Vietnam is firmly out of medal-contention. As things stand, India `A' faces formidable Kazakhstan while China meets holder Uzbekistan on the top two tables on Tuesday. India `B' will be looking to score maximum points against Sri Lanka while India `C' will try for a similar gain from Kyrgyzstan. Coming back to the flutter created by India `B', the Indian team began with the psychological advantage of facing a team, softened up by the draws inflicted by the other two Indian combinations. But none had expected India `B' to do better. In fact, Humpy got into a very good position against the Chinese no.1 Ye Jiangchuan but had to settle for a draw. Sandipan Chanda lost his way after a promising start against Xu Jun before things started moving India's way. R.B. Ramesh restored parity by putting the finishing touches to his game against fellow-International Master Yu Shaotang by trapping a rook. The focus then shifted to the Thipsay-Zhong game with the Indian looking good to provide a cheerful finish. Thipsay got into a good position in an irregular Sicilian set up. After gaining a pawn early, Thipsay added another one and forced the Chinese on the defensive. Up two pawns, Thipsay rightly went for the exchange of queens, and later rooks. Zhang Zhong saw no possibility of surviving the day and accepted defeat on the 63rd move.
Zhang tastes defeat
For Zhang Zhong, with a rating of 2666, the loss was his first in the championship. It may be recalled that in the Corus `B' championship this January in Wijk Aan Zee, Zhang Zhong had topped an admirable field and qualified to play against the cream of world players in next year's Corus `A'. His superlative performance saw him gain 42 points in the current world-rating list and improved his ranking from 66 to 29. Earlier, Humpy could have stunned Ye Jiangchuan on the top board but overlooked a queen-move from her rival and agreed for a draw almost immediately. This Petroff Defence game looked like coming Humpy's way as she accepted Jiangchuan's pawn-offer and defended well to reach a better position. On the 28th move, Humpy managed to gain Jiangchuan's rook for a bishop to further raise visions of a spectacular victory. However, six moves later, Humpy found herself facing a situation where she had to trade her queen for a rook. The experienced Chinese made a draw-offer at this stage. Humpy could have chosen to continue but was so upset with herself for allowing Jiangchuan an opportunity to get away that she agreed to split points. ``This was my worst game of the championship,'' was the categorical admission Humpy. "Till I overlooked my opponent's queen-move, it was fine. But that blunder made me miss a possible win,'' said Humpy, who is becoming more articulate these days. India `C', which posted a none-too-impressive 2.5-1.5 victory over Malaysia, now shares the third spot with Kazakhstan. In fact, the winning margin for India `C' could have been far bigger but Neelotpal Das drew on the top board after getting into a good position before Sriram Jha suffered a humiliating loss on the second board to Marcus Chan. For India `C', points continued to flow from the lower board. Dinesh Kumar Sharma maintained his undefeated run by scoring an emphatic victory over Ismail Ahmed on the fourth board.
Ravi gets GM-norm
A visibly nervous Lanka Ravi finally kept date with his maiden GM-norm. His well-executed winning plan against Nicholas Chan gave him 5.5 points from seven outings. Notably, Lanka Ravi's performance-rating so far stands at a whopping 2654, as against his modest rating of 2427. The day also saw Eesha Karavade make her second Woman International Master-norm. The 15-year-old WIPRO girl drew against Malaysia's Siti Zulaikha and met the norm-requirements. Eesha, with 4.5 points from seven matches, has the chance to enhance her norm in the remaining two rounds. Eesha's maiden 10-game norm came in the National `A' in Mumbai in January. Ironically, Eesha was the only Indian girl not to win on this day. Her India `C' team-mates Anupama Gokhale and Saimeera Ravi provided the winning margin over Malaysia while India `A' and India `B' blanked Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, respectively. With the strong teams pitted against weak ones on this day, the results in the women's section were never in doubt. Only the eventual margins held the interest of the discerning followers. The results (seventh round): Men: India `B' (16.5) beat China (17.5) 2.5-1.5 (Koneru Humpy drew with Ye Jiangchuan; Pravin Thipsay bt Zhang Zhong; Sandipan Chanda lost to Xu Jun; R.B. Ramesh bt Yu Shaoteng). Kazakhstan (17) beat Vietnam (16) 3-1 (Darman Sadvaksaov bt Dao Thien Hai; Petr Kostenko drew with Nguyen Ahn Dung; N. Ibraev drew with Tu Hoang Thong; Bakhtiar Askarov bt To Quoc Khanh). India `C' (17) beat Malaysia (13.5) 2.5-1.5 (Neelotpal Das drew with Wong Zi Jing; Sriram Jha lost to Marcus Chan; Lanka Ravi bt Nicholas Chan; Dinesh Sharma bt Ismail Ahmed). India `A' (18.5) beat Sri Lanka (7) 4-0 (Surya Sekhar Ganguly bt G.L. Wijesuriya; P. Hari Krishna bt C.K.D. Fonseka; Dibyendu Barua bt G.C. Anuruddha; Abhijit Kunte bt D. R.N.K.B. Dehigama). Uzbekistan (15.5) beat Kyrgyzstan (10) 4-0 (Rustam Kasimdzhanov bt M. Tupanov; Saidali Iuldachev bt T. Imanaliev; Shukhrat Safin; Tair Vakhidov bt Aziz Umarbekov). Iran (15) beat Macau (4) 4-0 (Ehsan Ghaem Maghami bt Solomon Celis; Morteza Mahjoob bt Chang Hon Kun; Shojaat Ghane bt Mak Keng Kei; Arash Roghani bt Radolfo Abelgas). Turkmenistan (14.5) bye. Women: China (15.5) beat Iran (10.5) 2-1 (Zhu Chen bt Atousa Pourkashiyan; Xu Yuhua bt Shadi Paridar; Wang Yu lost to Mahini Mona Salman). Vietnam (14.5) beat Kyrgyzstan (8) 3-0 (Hoang Thanh Trang bt Irini Ostry; Ngyuyen Thi Thanhan bt Alexandra Samaganova; Vo Hong Phuong bt Janyl Tilenbaeva). India `A' (14) beat Bangladesh (8.5) 3-0 (S. Vijayalakshmi bt Rani Hamid; Nisha Mohota bt Zakia Sultana; Dronavalli Harika bt Afroza Khanam). India `B' (13.5) beat Sri Lanka (3.5) 3-0 (S. Meenakshi bt Vineetha Wijesuriya; Swati Ghate bt Ayodhya Liyanagedara; Bhagyashree Thipsay bt Thushari Mahawaththa). India `C' (13) beat Malaysia (7) 2.5-0.5 (Eesha Karavade drew with Siti Zulaikha; Anupama Gokhale bt Roslina Marnono; Saimeera Ravi bt Lim Han Ying). Kazakhstan (11.5) beat Turkmenistan (6.5) 2.5-0.5 (Maria Sargeeva bt Maisa Ovezova; A. Turebaeva drew with Bahar Hallaeva; A. Imanbaeva bt Aykamar Malikgulyewa). Eighth round pairings: Men: Uzbekistan (15.5) v China (17.5); India `A' (18.5) v Kazakhstan (17); India `B' (16.5) v Sri Lanka (7); Malaysia (13.5) v Iran (15); Macau (4) v Turkmenistan (14.5); Kyrgyzstan (10) v India `C' (17); Vietnam (16) bye. Women: China (15.5) v Bangladesh (8.5); India `C' (13) v Vietnam (14.5); Sri Lanka (3.5) v India `A' (14); Krygyzstan (8) v India `B' (13.5); Malaysia (7) v Kazakshtan (11.5); Turkmenistan (6.5) v Iran (10.5).
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