Meenakshi bags maiden WGM norm

It was S Meenakshi's day at the Smith and Williamson British Open Chess championship. She bagged her maiden Woman Grandmaster norm in the eighth round, in Torquay, England.

Meenakshi (4.5 points) routed FIDE Master Peter Sowray with a fine kingside attack and is pitted against GM Mark Hebden of England in the next round. Even a defeat will do Meenakshi no harm as the criteria of playing in the correct average rating is fulfilled.

Top seed GM Krishnan Sasikiran was yet again held to a draw, this time by Chris Ward. Playing white, Ward played solidly and did not give any real chance to Sasikiran.

Elsewhere, GM Pedyala Harikrishna drew with defending champion GM Joseph Gallagher and thus helped young Luke Mcshane of England to jump into sole lead with 6.5 points after a finely crafted victory over compatriot Daniel Gormally.

Harikrishna, Gallaher and Sottish GM Jonathan Rowsan are close behind with 6 points each.

A bunch of ten players including GM Abhijit Kunte, WGM Koneru Humpy and IM R B Ramesh are on 5.5 points.

After a long drawn game in the previous round Gallagher was not too keen on a do-or-die battle with the black pieces against Harikrishna.

The opening featured Trompovsky attack by Harikrishna and Gallagher obtained a dynamic balance after the first few moves. The draw was agreed to in just 11 moves.

Moving well within the contention for what will be his second GM norm, Ramesh disposed off compatriot GM Dibyendu Barua.

Playing white, it was an early surprise for Barua as Ramesh opted for the Caro Kann defence instead of his pet Sicilian and equalised easily.

Barua went for complications in the resulting middlegame and allowed Ramesh to gain the upper hand in tactical play as Ramesh slowly converted his advantage into a full point.

Ramesh now needs a similar result against Kunte in the next round to achieve the norm.

Kunte played an adventurous game against highly veteran GM Jonathan Speelman of England. Playing white the Indian faced the Pirc defence and went for the king side attack straightway. Speelman however was quite equal to the task as he traded the queens at the right juncture to gain a slight advantage.

As the dust settled after further exchanges, Kunte sacrificed a pawn and drew the game with repetition of moves.

Meanwhile, up and coming youngster Gauri Shankar won his second British title scoring a brilliant 7/7 in the under-9 section. Gauri Shankar had earlier won the under-11 title.