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Bombay girl takes British chess title

Seven year old school girl Ketaki Kulkarni is the latest British chess champion in the under-8 category.

Ketaki, a 3rd standard student from Patkar Vidyalaya, in the Bombay suburb of Dombivli, won the championship late Friday night at Hove, near London.

The young champion, though, cannot bring the trophy home as she has been declared joint champion along with British girl Laura Hulley, both of whom scored four points in six rounds.

The other Indians in the fray also did remarkably well. Both Varun Dattani and Aditya Turakhia finished joint third on 4.5 points out of a possible 6 in the under-8 boys category, winning expensive chess books as reward.

Varun Dattani of Cathedral School, Mumbai, lost ground due to exhaustion after leading in four rounds. Ketaki was, however, calm and cool despite a tiring schedule - the girls' section of the championship being a tougher affair than the boys', as the participants have to compete in the boys section with the highest scoring girl being declared the girls' champion. The entire tournament, consisting of six rounds, is played in a single day.

Ketaki's father Shrirang Kulkarni said that his daughter played without showing any strain during the day. After winning the first round easily, she sufferred a reverse in the second round. However she bounced back by winning her next two games.

Particularly interesting was her game against Anton Chernikov - a Russian boy settled in England. Ketaki defeated him playing black.

By the fifth round, the little girl was totally exhausted. She lost to Tristan Granat in the fifth round. However Ketaki, who is trained by Dhanesh Shrikhande, overcame her mental and physical exhaution to down Karim Habibi - a Pakistani boy settled in the UK.

Ketaki tied with Laura Hulley of England on four points. Had they applied the tie-breaker,Ketaki would have won the title on her better progressive score. But the British Chess Federation, as per their tradition, declared both girls joint champions.

Young Ketaki was too tired to talk about, or even to fully understand, the magnitude of her achievement. Her father fought against all odds to take his talented child to England. He gave the credit for the win to Ketaki's coach, and to the sponsors, without whose help his daughter would never have been able to make the trip, he pointed out.

Asha Turakhia, mother of Aditya Turakhia meanwhile expressed satisfaction over her son's performance. "We shall try to take the titles to India next year, with better preparation," Mrs Turakhia said.

UNI