Harika wins National Women chess title
STAFF WRITER 18:28 HRS IST
Chennai, Dec 12 (PTI) Top Seed International Master Dronavalli Harika of Andhra Pradesh proved her supremacy when she won her maiden title in the 36th National Women Premier Chess Championship here today.
Harika drew her game against WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy to take the top honours with 8.5 points.
In the 11th and final round today, WGM Meenakshi, who was in the sole lead till the penultimate round, was facing WGM Mary Ann Gomes with the white pieces. As her tiebreak score was low, Meenakshi had to win to have a sniff of the championship title.
From an English opening, she threw caution to the winds and went for an allout attack against Mary’s king, weakening her own king in the process. Mary was quick to get her own counterattack going and Meenakshi lost her way to lose the game in 35 moves facing inevitable mate.
Final Ranking after 11 Rounds
| Rk. | Name | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
| 1 | IM | Harika Dronavalli | IND | 2474 | AP | 8,5 | 71,0 | 58,0 | 54,00 |
| 2 | WGM | Meenakshi Subbaraman | IND | 2324 | AIR INDIA | 8,0 | 69,0 | 56,0 | 47,25 |
| 3 | WIM | Kiran Manisha Mohanty | IND | 2150 | ORI | 7,5 | 69,0 | 56,0 | 45,00 |
| 4 | IM | Tania Sachdev | IND | 2399 | AIR INDIA | 7,0 | 70,0 | 57,0 | 39,50 |
| 5 | WGM | Karavade Eesha | IND | 2413 | MAH | 7,0 | 66,0 | 54,0 | 39,75 |
| 6 | WGM | Gomes Mary Ann | IND | 2384 | WB | 7,0 | 65,5 | 52,5 | 39,50 |
| 7 | WIM | Priya P | IND | 2177 | TN | 6,5 | 69,0 | 57,0 | 38,25 |
| 8 | CM | Bhakti Kulkarni | IND | 2263 | GOA | 6,5 | 67,5 | 55,5 | 34,00 |
| 9 | WGM | Ramaswamy Aarthie | IND | 2213 | AIR INDIA | 6,0 | 60,5 | 49,0 | 29,75 |
How come Humpy Koneru didn’t win?
Humpy was not a participant as one can see in complete the players list.
Harika emerges triumphant.
Arvind Aaron
THE CHAMPION: D. Harika receives the trophy from Dr. P. Mannar Jawahar, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University.
Chennai: D. Harika of Airports Authority of India won the 36th St. Joseph’s National Premier women’s chess championship which concluded here on Saturday.
Harika, 18, takes home Rs. 75,000 as first prize and a trophy. “I still value the World junior girls’ title of 2008 higher, but this title is very important to me as I had been trying hard and playing for it since 2001,” said Harika.
Meenakshi loses
Earlier, S. Meenakshi went all out for a win with white against Mary Ann Gomes and obtained a better position. She controlled the open file but abandoned it for an unsustainable attack.
Mary Ann escaped with her king into the centre and counterattacked.
Meenakshi lost her first game of the tournament and with it a chance to win the tournament for the first time. She finished second and was richer by Rs. 50,000.
Harika, who had weathered Aarthie’s attack on the other table with black, emerged with an extra knight.
But she did not take any risk and settled for a draw to clinch her maiden title.
She rated the eighth-round win over Tania Sachdev as her best game.
Her next assignment is the Asian Team Championship in Kolkata.
Undefeated
Harika remained undefeated along with Eesha Karavade.
World junior girls’ champion Soumya Swaminathan lost to Kiran Mohanty. Kiran finished third and received Rs. 30,000.
The top six make it to the Indian team for overseas trips to be decided by the All India Chess Federation (AICF) in 2010.
Dr. P. Mannar Jawahar, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University gave away the prizes in the presence of Dr. B. Babu Manoharan, Director, St. Joseph’s College of Engineering, WGM S. Vijayalakshmi and D.V. Sundar, Honorary Secretary, AICF.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/13/stories/2009121354111400.htm