Seeding takes a beating in second round meeting

KOZHIKODE, AUG 21: Seedings took a jolt as Tamil Nadu's fifth seeded M Priyadarshini, seventh seeded R Mahima and 12th seeded K Preethi s...

KOZHIKODE, AUG 21: Seedings took a jolt as Tamil Nadu’s fifth seeded M Priyadarshini, seventh seeded R Mahima and 12th seeded K Preethi suffered reverses in the National Sub-junior Girls Chess Championship at the indoor stadium today.

In the second round on Saturday, Neenu George of Kerala, the under-12 national champion here three years ago, accounted for last year’s under-14 champion K Preethi in 32 moves of an irregular Queen-pawn opening. Neenu, with black, won a pawn and then targeted her rival’s doubled pawns in the Kingfile. She forced a King and pawn ending with three extra pawns.

Priyadarshini fell to P Priya of T Nagar in 60 moves of Caro-Kann Defence while Priyanka of Karnataka scalped Mahima in 40 moves of Kings Indian defence. Rucha Karvade, who is seeded fourth here ahead of her better-known sister and under-14 champion Eesha Karvade, too joined the list when she lost to Pooja R of Karnataka in 24 moves of Sicilian.

TN’s top seeds, Y Pratibha and J E Kavitha, however, had smooth progress,both winning in 32 moves, in French and Sicilian respectively.

TOPBOARD RESULTS (SECOND ROUND)

BOYS: Sandeep Kohli (Pun) 1 lost to Valay Parikh Guj) 2; Poobesh Anand (TN) 1.5 drew Rahul Sangma (Bih) 1.5; S S Singh (Mani) 1 lost to Aditya Vikram (UP) 2; Abhijit Gupta (Raj) 2 bt Vijil Mehlil Pujra (Guj) 1; Girija Kumar (AP) 1 lost to Saptarshi Roy (GNCA) 2; Gopimohanan (Ker) 1.5 drew Deep Sen Gupta (Bih) 1.5; R Siddharth (Capa) 2 bt Mohammed Shihab (Ker) 1; Rakesh Agarwal (Bih) 1.5 drew Adway Choudhury (WB) 1.5; Soumya Ranjan Mishra (Ori) 1.5 drew R S Prasanna (TN) 1.5; Sagar Masurekar (Mah) 1 lost to Yambem D Singh (Mani) 2; Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) 2 bt Gaurav Hingne (Mah) 1; V Srinivas (Chrompet) 2 bt Byomkesh Naik (Ori) 1; N Vigneswaran (TN) 1.5 drew S Raghuraman (TN) 1.5; R Naveen (Capa) 1.5 drew Phoobalan (TN) 1.5; Vineeth P Kaimal (Ker) 1 lost to K Sujeesh (Ker) 2; Jagadeesh (Kar) 2 bt K Saikrishna (AP) 1; Soumitra Majumdar (Mah) 1 lost to Yashpal Singh (MP) 2; P Kumaresh 1.5 bt VKVSudan (TN) 1.

GIRLS: Aradhana (Ori) 1 lost to Y Pratibha (TN) 2; J E Kavitha (TN) 2 bt Sonam Shah (Guj) 1; Rucha Karvade (Mah) 1 lost to Pooja R (Kar) 2; P Priya (T Nagar) 2 bt M Priyadarshini (TN) 1; P Malarselvi (TN) 1.5 drew Nimmy George (Ker) 1.5; Priyanka (Kar) 2 bt R Mahima (TN) 1; Amritha Mokal (Mah) 2 bt Nabeela Farheen (TN) 1; Krithika Nadig (Mah) 1 lost to M Rajadarshini (TN) 2; Eesha Karvade (Mah) 2 bt Supriya Maji (WB) 1; M Akila (TN) 1.5 drew Baisakhi Das (WB) 1.5; K Preethi (TN) 1 lost to Neenu George (Ker) 2; Anuprita (Mah) 1.5 drew Aswathy B (Ker) 1.5; Pannaga Magal (Mah) 2 bt Jaya Arinmathu (TN) 1; H Nilavoli (TN) 2 bt Madhuri Patil (Mah) 0.5.