 The Indian flag flew high and mighty at Oropesa del Mar, Spain, on
Friday November 5,1999. The occasion for the proud flutter was that Aarthie Ramaswamy and Koneru Humpy clinched a gold
and silver in the Under-18 and Under-12 categories giving the championships a strong
Indian flavour. After a tough battle lasting nearly five-and-a-half-hours, Aarthie
defeated Wang Yu of China in the final round logging 9 points, the same as top seed
Evgeniya Ovod of Russia. But a superior progressive score gave Aarthie the World Under-18
champion title. Thanks to the world title, she also becomes a Women International Master.
Aarthie is the fourth Indian to win a world title in Chess after Viswanathan Anand,
Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy.Aarthie, born
on 28th June, 1981, is a BBA student of SNDB Vaishnav College, Chennai. She has previously
won several age-categories in India. The high point of her career was winning the Asian
Sub-Junior in Bombay in 1997, with a cent percent score of 9/9. The career graph of
Aarthie has shown a steady rise and this outstanding performance should give her and
Indian Chess a great shot in the arm. There has been a victory run in each of the last
three international tournaments with Indians participating. Sashikiran won the Asian
Junior Championship in Vietnam, which was followed by the great show by the Indian team in
the Asian Team Chess at Shenyang, China, where they took the bronze. Aarthie winning the
gold in Spain completes a grand hat-trick of medals for India. In addition, Aarthie gives
one more champion to the city of Chennai, the Mecca of Indian chess.
For the talented Koneru Humpy, it was miss of sorts, as she
started as the defending champion in her section. But she found more than a match in the
winner Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia who won with a round to spare. Among others, M. R.
Venkatesh promised much but failed to deliver in the end; while Harikrishna put up a
steady show in the second half to finish with a respectable score. It was a rich
experience for many others and the young shanks are bound to do well with their enthusiasm
and preparation. Rahul Sangma who finished sixth in the Under-10 section was awarded the
"Fair Play Award" in the closing ceremony. Rahul agreed to play Edouard Bonnet
of France after the top seed failed to turn up for the round in time, when the Arbiters
awarded full points by a walk over to the Indian. Rahul lost that game, but won great
appreciation for his sportmanship which did everyone proud. |
