Bangladesh’s Shamima Akter Liza continued to be a thorn in the flesh of Indian Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika, who had to settle for a second straight draw against her opponent in the first round of the World Chess Championships at Tehran on Monday.
The inexperienced Padmini Rout, though, entered the second round after beating Armenia’s Elina Danielian at the end of the second game.
Harika, rated more than 400 points ahead of Shamima, yet again failed to find her rhythm. The Indian, who played with black during the first game, was in danger of slumping to a defeat after landing in an unfavourable position but recovered well during the game.
Harika and Shamima will now compete in tiebreak games of shorter duration. In the first set of games, the two players will play two games of 25 minutes each with a possibility of a 10-second increment, reported PTI.
Danielian, ranked 25th, was unable to cope with the attacking game of the 40th-ranked Rout, who played with white. Danielian resigned after Rout landed the decisive blow through keeping a rook en prise on the 28th move.
The top seeds in the tournament, China’s Ju Wenjun of China, Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk and Russia’s Alexandra Kosteniuk progressed to the next round with 2-0 wins.
