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Journalism of Courage
KOZHIKODE, JUNE 22: Fifth seed Swati Ghate stunned the top seed and national champion S Vijayalakshmi in 30 moves in the first round of the 25th National Women’s `A’ Chess Championship here today.
Safira Shanaz, Aarthie Ramaswamy, world Under-12 champion Koneru Humpy and Bhagyashree Thipsay also scored easy victory in the first round, while former national champion Anupama Gokhale was held to a draw by Swati Mohota in the 34th move.
In a Scotch game, Swati Ghate got the better of Vijayalakshmi within 18 moves. On the 21st move, Vijayalakshmi missed an aggressive queen sortie and was forced to trade her queen for two rooks of Swati.
To tide over an impasse, Viji was forced to sacrifice a bishop for a pawn of Swati which proved fatal on the 28th move and the surrender followed soon after.
The most interesting game of the first round was between Safira Shanaz and Pallavi Shah. Pallavi sacrificed a vital pawn on the 25th move to open `B’ file and counter Safira’s tactical combination with her two rooks and a bishop supported by knight.
In a thrilling but unclear position, Safira who was on the black side, suddenly circled the two pawn weaknesses of the opponent’s camp and made a bishop sacrifice which caught Pallavi unawares. In dire time trouble, she blundered away her knight and resigned on the 28th move.
Nerves and time pressure cost Dolan Champa Bose a valuable point against Koneru Humpy in Pirc Defence. Her rash move with the bishop to sacrifice on f7, just six moves after the opening, to capture three pawns of Humpy proved futile. In a clearly helpless position on the 32nd move, she resigned.
