Five Medals at Asian Indoor Games for D. Harika

From The Hindu Online November 7, 2007 ‘Macau — the biggest moment of my chess career’ Special Correspondent PUNE: “Winning five medals at the Asian Indoor Games (in Macau) is the biggest moment of my chess career,” declares International Master D. Harika, as she proudly displays her booty that includes two gold medals in her room here. At 16, Harika has already achieved plenty in terms of age-group titles in the World, Asian, Commonwealth and National championships. Last December, she became the only lady in the history of the National ‘A’ chess championship to remain undefeated in a male-dominated field. But what has thrilled this World No. 12 lady player is the way she performed at Macau last fortnight. Harika was the most successful Indian lady at the Games. She won two golds, two silvers and a bronze medal — a medal in every category she entered. “When we left for the Games, I was not very sure how things would go. I had just returned from Armenia after missing a World junior girls’ medal following defeats in the last three rounds. Even a draw in any of those games would have given me a medal. So I was a bit upset with myself,” revealed Harika. Terrific run Once the action began, Harika’s apprehensions gave way to a terrific run. She scored five points from six rounds in the mixed team competition in rapid format as India claimed the first gold of the Games. Harika went on to win gold in the individual event as well. “This was the first time I was playing rapid chess in any competition. But once I won the first two games, my confidence was back and I started enjoying the shorter version of the game,” she said. “There was no time to prepare or plan for the next game. Still we all enjoyed ourselves and kept encouraging each other,” said Harika, of her teammates K. Sasikiran, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, S. Arun Prasad, K. Humpy and Tania Sachdev, who helped India bag five gold, three silver and a bronze. Sasikiran had three gold medals, including two in individual events, and two silver medals. In the Classical format, where India collected the mixed team silver behind China, Harika contributed the most — five points from six games — to make the semifinals. However, she lost to Qatar’s Zhu Chen, a former World champion, 1.5-0.5 and took the bronze. Harika was not part of the individual event in blitz format but returned in the team championship to score three points from five games as the top seeded Indians settled for the silver behind China. She is now aiming to continue her form in the ongoing women’s National ‘A’ championship here. Should this girl from Guntur justify her seeding, she would become the first lady to win the National ‘B’ and ‘A’ crowns in the same city.