21-Year Old Harika Dronavalli Looks Forward

I have to admit I was shocked when I read that Dronavalli is only 21 years old!  I've been writing about her for so long -- she must have been an infant when I started -- but then, most of these chessplayers seem ageless to me :)

Harika ready for more grind, eyes GP meets

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By Amit Karmarkar, TNN | Nov 30, 2012, 05.50 AM IST


PUNE: D Harika oozes a charming mix of innocence and maturity. Hence her surprising semifinals berth in the knockout World Cup chess in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, last week is that much sweeter.

The 21-year-old Guntur girl, relaxing in her new home in Hyderabad's Banjara Hill area, said: "I felt nice and bad at the same time. Nice because I reached thus far. And bad because I couldn't make it count (she lost to Stefanova in semis). But I have to be happy. Though it was just a knockout tournament and not a super strong event, the performance gives me motivation. "It indicates that I need to work harder to be even better player. I should reach a level where I should able to win this tournament easily. I need to increase my rating, prove myself, learn more about the game and become a strong player."

Harika, who has a contract with Airport Authority of India and is backed by Lakshya, trained with GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, who was Anand's second during his three World title matches, before the meet.

"When I said sorry to Ganguly after losing in the semis, he said he is proud of me. I felt a bit better after that."

This big break has somewhat negated Harika's slow progress by her own standards. She was expecting to attain men's GM title by 2007-08 but managed that only in 2011. But being the semifinalist at World Cup now, she can get invites for Grand Prix meets in 2013 and 2014.

Despite being the semifinalist, 12th seed Harika is expecting to add only 2-3 Elo points to her strength (Elo 2512). She played against one higher-rated player during her four match wins (six top players bite the dust early) and didn't win a game against the a higher-rated player in classical time control.
 
The Asian women's chess title last year as the top seed has been Harika's biggest international title. She said: "We Indians don't think much about winning international titles because we don't play that frequently. It's quite natural to think of increasing rating and attaining norms in that case. It's a question of experience and getting used to playing at the higher level.

"If Humpy would have been in my place, she won't have been happy at all about the semifinals of World Cup. She has been there and done that."