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Harika bags national juniors title
Harika Dronavalli of Andhra Pradesh wins the 16th National Junior Girls Chess Championship beating second seed Vinuthna N.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 07:37 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Chennai:
Harika Dronavalli of Andhra Pradesh won the 16th National Junior Girls Chess Championship in Chennai defeating statemate and second seed Vinuthna N. In the 10th and penultimate round, top seed Harika defeated Vinuthna N to reach 8.5 points and win the title with a round to spare. Even if she loses her final round game, she will emerge winner with a better tie-break score. Maryanne Gomes, joint leader in the previous round, was defeated by Priya of CAPA Chess Academy. Mary is now in the second spot with Priya and Eesha Karavade of Venus Chess Academy, with 7.5 points each. Delphin C (TN) is in third place with seven points. Priya played Mary on the top board and won in 38 moves in the Sicilian Alapin variation. Priya had earlier defeated the then sole leader Nilavoli in the eighth round. Priya got a slight advantage in the opening. A pawn sacrifice by Mary acted in her favour. Priya later got Mary's rook for her bishop and entered a winning end game. On the second board, Harika, the world U-12 girls silver medallist, defeated Vinuthna in a Sicilian Rosoolimo variation. Harika was better placed in the middle game and forced her opponent to part with her piece. Vinuthna resigned on the 36th move. The sole leader till the seventh round, Nilavoli H of Tamil Nadu went out of contention when she lost to Eesha Karavade. Eesha, in the Sicilian defence, played early 65 and got a pawn after 38 moves. Eesha slowly built her position to win in 60 moves in the king and pawn ending. (PTI)Topics mentioned in this article
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