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Journalism of Courage
UDAIPUR, JANUARY 19: It was a fairly good day for Indians at the Asian Chess Championship at the City Palace here on Tuesday. Subburaman Vijayalakshmi brightened the day for the hosts by completing her third and final Woman Grand Master norm, with a 24-move draw with second seed Chinese WGM Wang Pin in the ninth round.
The Indian Airlines employee is just a step away from becoming the country’s first Woman Grand Master. As Viji has only 29-game norms after today’s draw, she requires to play one more round and a win to complete the formality. Even if Viji draws her game in the 10th round tomorrow, her prospects of securing the WGM title would still be bright, with the requirement of a win in the final round.
Viji, delighted after finally completing the third norm said: “Finally I am relaxed today. I had been missing this norm for almost two years now. Coming close to it but not been able to complete it — that was my problem in the last seven-eight tournaments.”
Viji had won the first norm in the men’s tournament in Goodricke Championship (December 1996) and the second in Linares (January 1998).
Another heartening news for the Indians was P Harikrishna bagging his maiden International Master norm, scoring a full point over Chinese GM Wang Zili. Zili is seeded fourth here and played with white in the King’s Indian defence.
Meanwhile, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, who completed his second IM norm yesterday, inched his way towards a double treat after defeating IM Ziaur Rahaman of Bangladesh with white pieces in Sicilian defence. Ganguly now requires a draw from the 10th round for the IM title and 1.5 points from the last two rounds for his first GM norm.
For Krishnan Sasikiran, however, it was a case of sheer hard luck. Needing a win to become the country’s fourth Grand Master he missed the final norm by a whisker on Tuesday as he settled for a draw on the top board against second seed Chinese GM Zhang Zhong. However, the Indian youngster is still in the race, as he requires a win tomorrow to earn the coveted GM title.
Playing with white on the top board, the 20-year-old Indian was never in position to develop his pieces, losing his Queen in the middle game and going down an exchange in the Nimzo Indian opening. From a seemingly hopeless situation the Indian extracted a draw in 50 moves.
Meanwhile, three players — GM Peng Xiaomin, GM Xu Jun (both China) and GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam (all 6.5 points) — remained atop of the leader board as GM Zhang Zhong slipped to second place after the draw with Sasikiran.
In the women’s section, Vietnam’s WGM Hoan Thanh Trang, however, tightened her grip with an easy win over India’s Koneru Humpy with black pieces. Trang now has eight points and is 1.5 points ahead of the nearest rival WGM Qin Kanying of China.
Viji is holding on to the third place with six points while WIM Bhagyasree Thipsay leapfrogged to joint fourth at 5.5 points alongwith WIM Sargeeva Maria of Kazakistan, Uzbek’s WGM Memodova Rena and WGM Wang Pin.
The other double WGM norm holder Bhagyasree Thipsay also has a possibility of getting her WGM title, if she wins both the remaining rounds.
Results (Round 9):
Men: IM K Sasikiran (Ind, 2514) 5.5 drew with GM Zhang Zhong (Chi, 2611) 6; IM Wu Wenjin (Chi, 2522) 5 lost to GM Xu Jun (Chi, 2578) 6.5; GM Dao Thien Hai (Vie, 2550) 6.5 bt IM Reefat Bin Satter (Ban, 2379) 5; GM Peng Xiadmin (Chi, 2624) 6.5 bt IM Abhijit Kunte (Ind, 2487) 4.5; FM P Harikrishna (Ind, 2354) 5.5 bt GM Wang Zili (Chi, 2571) 4.5; SS Ganguly (Ind, 2440) 5.5 bt IM Ziaur Rahaman (Ban, 2465) 4.5; GM Dibyendu Barua (Ind, 2555) 4.5 drew with IM Vahidov Tair (Uzb, 2505) 4.5; GM Yuldashev Saydalli (Uzb, 2509) 5 bt Hatem Ahamed (Yem, 2350) 4; IM Kayumov Dimitry (Uzb, 2475) 4 lost to IM GB Prakash (Ind, 2435) 5; FM Ghaem Meghami Eshan (Ira, 2446) 4 lost to IM RB Ramesh (Ind, 2443) 5; GM Pravin Thipsay (Ind, 2475) 4 drew with IM Isaev Jamshed (TAZ, 2425) 4; Razaei Saravi Reza (Ira, 2220) 1.5 lost to S Kidambi (Ind, 2433) 4.5; IM Sudhakar Babu (Ind, 2336) 3.5 drew with FM Timothy Reilly (Aus, 2192) 2.5; IM DV Prasad (Ind, 2421) 4.5 bye.
Women: WIM Koneru Humpy (Ind, 2244) 4.5 lost to WGM Hoang Thanh Trang (Chi, 2448) 8; WGM Qin Kanying (Chi, 2475) 6.5 drew with WIM Sargeeva Maria (Kaz, 2207) 5.5; WGM Wang Pin (Chi, 2469) 5.5 drew with WIM S Vijayalakshmi (Ind, 2383) 6; WIM Rani Hamid (Ind, 2136) 4 lost to WGM Mamedova Rena (Uzb, 2323) 5.5; WFM Xu Yuanyuan (Chi, 2370) 4 lost to WIM Bhagyasree Thipsay (Ind, 2247) 5.5; WFM Tanima Praveen (Ban, 2080) 4 lost to WFM Safira Shanaz (Ind, 2136) 5; Vineetha Wijesurya (Lanka) 2.5 lost to WFM Saheli Dhar Barua (Ind, 2185) 5; WFM Narelle Szuvege (Aus, 2040) 2.5 lost to Tania Sachdev (Ind, 2105) 5; Siti Zulaika (Mal) 1 lost to WIM Swati Ghate (Ind, 2297) 4.5; WIM Sargeeva Tatiana (Kaz, 2250) 4.5 bye.
