Meet Harika, Junior World Champion (girls' section)

The World Junior Championship was held in Gaziantep between 2-16 August, the sixth largest city and one of the major economic centers in Turkey. Abhijeet Gupta and Harika Dronavalli, both from India, won the World Junior titles, after dramatic turnarounds, which are frequent in World Junior Championships.

Interview with Harika Dronavalli

By Özgür Akman for ChessBase

Yes, right, it is never easy. I wanted to win it so badly before I came. It is so special to win the Gold Medal here. I am very happy that I won my first world junior girl title in Turkey. There is also a third reason that after missing the title last year in Armenia, I thought I should win the title this year. All of the games lasted very long and they were fighting, but I knew the conditions provided here were going to be great from my experience back in March, so I had no excuse but to win the title.

I have been to three tournaments in Turkey. I played in 2005 World Junior in Istanbul. Actually I have been here before in the 2005 edition for World Junior Championship. Until now, I can see the development even in the way everything is organized.

It is really a great achievement that someone from Turkey should win a medal in the World Junior. Chess is becoming more and more well-known. I hope Turkey will have more successes in the future.

It is great that we won both titles. I think it is very rare for a country to win both the junior and junior girls title at the same time. I am very happy that my country achieved this. We have our great world champion Anand, and are winning more and more medals in youth and junior championships.

The winners of the World Junior Championship in Gaziantep: WFM Nazi Paikdze (Georgia), WGM Nariya Muzychuk (Ukraine), IM Harika Dronavalli (India), WFM Kübra Öztürk (Turkey), WIM Mary Ann Gomes (India).

It is growing rapidly. We have many young talented players. I simply hope that we will get more and more…We haven’t got any medals in the Olympiad, I hope that will change this year, also.

First of all, I want to win the grandmaster title. I have no norms yet, but I want to finish my norms and become grandmaster. Then, winning the world championship after that.

I don’t know. I don’t have any specific aim, but I just want to go there, play and see what happens.

I will take part in World Mind Games in Beijing, China. After that, European Club Cup and Olympiad.

I will play in Economist Saratov, the club I played for during Russian Teams Championship also.

This year I also played in the Chinese league.

I have not received any offer. I already read an article about the league on ChessBase, but I have no other knowledge about the league apart from that.

Actually, I liked each and every game I played here since all of them lasted very long. I played my first game at ten o’clock and finished my game at three o’clock. I came back to the hotel, I took the 4:20 p.m. shuttle [The round was starting at 5 p.m.]. I was playing with my compatriot. That game finished at nine o’clock. I played most of the games until the very end.

When you play one long game and then a short game , it might be understandable. However, every game I won lasted five or six hours. I was just saying to myself “Oh, no!” after that game.

Judit Polgar.

We all grew up with games of Anand and every Indian player respects him very much. However, I want to be like Judit Polgar.

Now seperate tournaments are growing a lot: Atatürk Masters, North Urals and also a tournament in Azerbaijan... A lot of players are very happy to play to have an opportunity to play in more tournaments.

Of course there is difference between man and women not because of weakness. Maybe one female plays chess among seventy male players. For example, take Hou Yifan. She is playing at a very top level. Maybe holding the junior championships and mixing boys and girls might be an adequate solution. Mentally girls can be better prepared to play against boys starting from an early age.

Normally, I do not read many books. However, “Breaking Through” really motivated me. My coach sometimes tells me books to read.

N.V.S. Raju is my personal coach. He is not a top level player but he is helping in every aspect of my life for the tournaments.

Girls' section – final standings after 13 rounds

Fact File

• Full name: Dronavalli Harika
• Date of birth: January 12, 1991
• Birth place: Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India.
• Family members: father Ramesh, mother Swarna, older sister Anusha
• Coach: N.V.S. Raju
• School: tenth standard student at Shri Venkatehware Bal Kuter, Guntur.
• Elo ratings: 2461 (July 2008)
• Titles: WIM, WGM, IM

Early highlights of Harika's Career

1. Winner; Asian U-10 (Girls) at Bikaner (Rajasthan) in 2002. Also won the U-18 title in Asian Open Chess Championship in 2002 at Bikaner.
2. Bronze medal, World Youth Chess Festival (U-12, Girls) at Greece in 2002
3. In the World Cup Chess at Hyderabad in 2002 she defeated former women world champion Maya Chidurdanidze.
4. Became youngest women International Master in Asia at 12 yrs.
   (i) First WIM Norma from Asian Youth Championship at Tehran 2002
   (ii) Second WIM Norm Women National ‘A’ (India’s premier national championship) in 2002.
   (iii) Third WIM norm from world Junior Championship in 2002 held at Goa (India)
5. Won the board prize (Gold medal) on fourth board in Asian Team championship at Jodhpur (Rajasthan) in 2003.
6. Won Silver medal in women category at commonwealth chess championship in Mumbai (India) 2003. Here she got her maiden WGM & IM norms.
7. Silver medal, Asian Women Championship at Calcutta (India) in 2003. Harika finished her second WGM & IM norms.
8. Winner of Bronze medal in U-12 category of world youth chess festival at Greece in 2002.
9. Became youngest WGM in Asia by winning the Commonwealth U-18 title at Mumbai (India) in 2004. In addition, she collected her third and final WGM norm.
10. She got her third and final IM norm to become International Master at Chennai in International Open Tournament.
11. At Mallorca in 36th chess Olympiad, she represented the Indian women team on third board and had the distinction of not losing any game in her maiden appearance. She collected 4½ points from 9 games, drawing all. Indian women team secured 9th position.
12. She became world U-14 Girls Champion at Elista last year (2004).
13. Won Silver medal in Asian Junior Girls championship at Bikaner, in December, 2004.

    
    ChessBase portrait of Harika from February 2005

Links Official tournament site of the Turkish Chess Federation All games from the World Junior in zipped PGN: Open section + Girls' section A selection of games is being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.