Harika Dronavalli “The Wonder Women of Chess” from our Telugu land has won the bronze medal for a straight 3rd consecutive time in World Chess Championship for women. After a putting up a determined and bold fight against Tan Zhongyi from China, she lost in a tie-breaker situation. The Armageddon (Tie-breaker) match in fact was a blow to her as the criteria for Tan’s win here is “Time” as she just “won on time”.
What is Armageddon?: Armageddon is the format /regulation of chess game which yields results. In this case of tie breaker, Tan Zhongyi was given 4 minutes to defend(draw=win) in this situation and Harika was given 5 minutes to WIN!! According to the rules player playing with Black(Tan) has 4 minutes to make a move and draw the game which is equal to a win and White(Harika) should Win under 4 minutes.
How did she plot: The match had all odds for Harika as she looked to clinch it? If there’s one match in the whole tournament which had a nail-biting finish that was this game. Before, losing the tie-breaker game, the whole match was nothing short of a sports-movie climax giving cinematic feels. While Tan won the first game with white pieces and Harika clinching the second game as same, it was all set for overtime. Tan’s brilliant adaptation to stringent defense and clear blocking, Harika won the last set with just 5 moves remaining. Which later headed into the tie-breaker Armageddon.
The finals: In this tie-breaker there were 2- 25 minute games, 2-10 minute games and 2- blitz game(less than 10 minutes). After the scores were tied at 4-4 and 99 moves later in the final match, the clock struck and it was Tan who advanced into the finals. Tan also previously beat another Indian Padmini Rout in Round 16 and advanced into quarter finals.
Though it is the third time in row now that she has won a bronze medal for India after 2012 and 2015 it is nothing short of gold as the moves and fight she put up against the Chinese is something worth praising of. Hope she’ll cross the semifinal mark next year and bring what she deserves.
And FYI Twitter is already on its duty praising this one!!
