Maria nails second chess duel draw

JAKARTA (JP): Maria Lucia accepted a 77th move draw proposed by her opponent, Georgia's woman grandmaster Nana Alexandria, in their third chess duel in Surabaya on Sunday. The draw, the second in a row of their four-match battle scheduled to end yesterday, resulted in a 2-1 lead for Nana.

Maria, Indonesia's 1991 Asian Junior Chess Champion, had more time than six-time former Olympic champion Nana during the additional one hour given to them after their first one-hour time frame ran out. Maria had five minutes left and Nana, two.

But Maria said she had to accept the draw offer, because it would not be possible for her to cash in on her three-minute time advantage to nail a victory. This was confirmed by international judge Mukmin Panggabean. "In the end, they would draw anyway. A time difference of three minutes meant nothing. Both were short on time," Panggabean said.

At the 77th move, Nana moved her queen to d2 in order to hedge her pawn from being captured by Maria's queen. Maria answered the protective move by putting her queen to a1 in order to launch a checkmate. This was the point at which Nana proposed a draw.

During the game, Nana fully took advantage of playing white pieces. Having built a solid Slavia footing early in the game, Nana relentlessly pressed Maria with her attacks. Things got worse for Maria, who could almost do nothing but defend, when she blundered at the 30th move and lost her c6 pawn.

Nana kept on pressing. Maria, meanwhile, kept on finding a way out of Nana's attacks. It was at the 56th move that Maria, after a successful circumventing run, finally captured Nana's a5 pawn with her queen, thereby reestablishing the equilibrium.

"The 56th move was the point where Maria's play began to come alive," noted Panggabean. Nana said she played a bit too careful, which she thought she had to after observing that Maria became more matured and calm. It was the second marathon result the two women have been involved in since Saturday, where they agreed to a standoff at the 62nd move. (arf)