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Winners - Girls
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Mary Ann Gomes Wins Asian Junior Girls
By Arvind Aaron
Mary Ann Gomes, 17, of Kolkata won the Asian Junior Girls Championship
that concluded at the Bapu Samaj Sewa Kendra in New Delhi on Nov 14. The
Asian Junior was won by top seed GM Nguyen Ngoc Truongson of Vietnam.
Tuesday was a memorable day for M.Shyam Sundar, a ninth standard school
student from Chennai who became India's youngest International Master.
Requiring a victory in the final round for the undivided title, IM title
and GM norm, Shyam only made a draw against the Vietnamese grandmaster.
Truongson took the title (gold) on better tie-break while Shyam had to
settle for the silver medal. Both scored seven points from nine rounds.
The third place (bronze medal) went to Gogineni Rohit of Andhra
Pradesh who scored 6.5 points. Others who also scored 6.5 points were
Aswin Jayaram, Abhijeet Gupta and Deep Sengupta.
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Winner - Boys
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India
dominated the girls section. Our players swept the podium. Mary Ann
obtained yet another WGM norm from this event by winning this Asian
Junior. She needs one more WGM norm to become a woman grandmaster. "I hope
to make it in the Commonwealth Championship coming up in the next few days
at Mumbai," Mary Ann said. Mary Ann is busy on the chess tour. Only last
month she won the bronze medal in the world under-18 championship at
Batumi.
Four players tied for the first place with seven points in the girls
section. Silver medal and more importantly the Woman International Master
title went to Kiran Monisha Mohanty of Orissa. Her coach IM Sekhar Sahu
said from Mumbai, "very glad to hear this news. This was long overdue.
After winning the National Under-14 rapid title she did not make progress
and at that time we were worried. Now she has started to make big progress
and should soon become a WGM." Orissa has lot of other talent like Padmini
Rout and despite our state not hosting any nationals for the last 30
years, talent is blooming there said Sahu. Lakshmi Sahithi of Andhra
Pradesh won the bronze medal and also along with it the Woman
International Master title. She drew Mary Ann in the final round to
tie for the first place with seven points and take the third place. It is
a big leap for her and Kiran. Madurai's R.Preethi beat Amruta Mokal in the
final round to tie for the first place and finish fourth. Preethi is a big
talent and this performance should be a signal for things to come in
Indian women's chess.
The Organising Secretary of the tournament, Bharat Singh Chauhan, said,
“The biggest incentive for the winners of this tournament is the
Grandmaster norm and a berth in to the next World Junior Championship to
be held at Yerevan, Armenia. In our effort to make chess as popular as
cricket this tournament is playing a great role, this can be make out by
the number of participants who came from different countries to
participate in the tournament.”
Details and
standings on www.delhichess.com
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Published on : 14.11.2006
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