Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS) National champion Kruttika Nadig beat Women Grandmaster Nisha Mohota in the final round to win the Asian Zone 3.2 women’s title and a berth in the next World Cup.
In a dramatic final round Saturday, another title contender, Bangladesh National Champion Sultana Sharmin Shirin, surprisingly lost her seventh round encounter against unheralded Sri Lankan player Sachini Ranasinghe.

That meant Nisha needed just a draw against Kruttika to ensure the title. But the Pune-based Kruttika, needing a win for the title, went all out in an attacking Ruy Lopez opening and sealed the victory and a place in World Cup in 64 moves.

Nisha Mohota and top seed Tania Sachdev tied for the second spot with 4 points each but a better tie-break score helped Tania to finish second while Nisha had to be satisfied with a third spot finish.

Meanwhile, in the men’s section, local hope Sriram Jha took the sole lead with eight points after outwitting Gillani Tunveer of Pakistan in the 10th round encounter.

Looking for his second GM norm and a World Cup berth, Jha overcome his Pakistani rival in 37 moves.

Veteran grandmaster Praveen Thipsay and second seed Deepan Chakkravarthy are closely following the leader and are just half a point behind.

In the 10th round encounter Thipsay beat Neelotpal Das after 51 moves in Sicilian Defence while Deepan had it easy against Kesav Malla of Bhutan. In another 10th round encounter, Indian International Master K. Rathnakaran shocked top seed Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh in Modern Defence after 67 moves.

Results (Indians otherwise stated):

Men (Round-10) :- IM Sriram Jha (8) beat Gillani Tunveer of Pakistan (3); Ahmed Ashraf of Maldives (1) lost to GM Reefat Bin-Sattar of Bangladesh (4.5); Surbir Lama of Nepal (3.5) beat Hapuarachchi HLM of Sri Lanka (2); IM K Rathnakaran (7) beat GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh (6.5); Kesav Malla of Bhutan (0) lost to GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (7.5); GM Praveen Thipsay (7.5) beat GM Neelotpal Das (7); Amir Karim of Pakistan (2.5) got bye.

Men (Round-9) :- Neelotpal Das beat Malla Kesav; Deepan Chakkravarthy drew with K Rathnakaran ; Ziaur Rahman beat Surbir Lama ; Hapuarachchi beat Ahmed Ashraf ; Reefat Bin-Sattar drew with Sriram Jha; Gillani Tunveer drew with Amir Karim; Praveen Thipsay got bye.

Results Women (Round-7) :- Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka (2) beat Sultana Sharmin Shirin of Bangladesh (3.5); Monalisa Khamboo of Nepal (0) lost to WGM Swathi Ghate (3); WGM Kruttika Nadig (4.5) beat WGM Nisha Mohota (4); IM Tania Sachdev (4) got bye.

Women (Final Standings):- (1) WGM Kruttika Nadig (India) 4.5 points (2) IM Tania Sachdev (India) with 4 points (3) WGM Nisha Mohota (India) 4 points (4) Sultana Sharmin Shirin (Bangladesh) with 3.5 points (5) WGM Swathi Ghate (India) 3 points (6) Sachini Ranasinghe (Sri Lanka) 2 points (7) Monalisa Khamboo 0 points.