Harika Dronavalli moving forward

Chasing the men
Rajesh Pansare
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 3:00 IST

Mumbai: If International Master Harika Dronavalli is called India’s Judit Polgar, it won’t be an understatement. At a very young age Polgar was considered better than her male counterparts, which is true for Harika too.

Polgar went on to reach as high as world No. 8 in men’s ranking and Harika surely wants to emulate that and is raring break into the male bastion.

As an 18-year-old girl, she has already won three world junior titles — under-14, under-18 and under-20 — in girls section apart from Asian and Commonwealth titles. She is now planning to play more on men’s circuit hereon just like her idol did.

“My focus will be on 2010 Women’s World Championship. Thereon I will play more in men’s tourneys. I know I can do it,” says the lass from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, who has already been awarded the Arjuna in 2007.

For Harika, there is not much difference in men’s and women’s categories. “My job is to play well. Of course, men’s section has more competition. But for me it doesn’t matter who’s sitting across the board. More important is the rating of my opponent and I plan my game accordingly.”

The only thing that is missing in his cupboard is the Grandmaster title, but she is leaving no stone unturned to achieve that. “I have set a one year target to get three GM norms besides moving my rating closer to 2600, which will give me an opportunity to play with the best,” says Harika, who won the World Junior title last year.

Harika’s attitude of ‘winning at any cost’ played a vital role in her 64-square game career. “First national I took part was in 1999… the trophy inspired me the most and I promised myself that I would win the title one day. I won it the very next year,” she said adding that similar thing happened with World U-10 Championship in 2000. “I came agonisingly close to winning the title before settling for the silver in 2000. Then I took the same oath and won the under-14 title in 2004.”

Harika went on to win two more world titles. That year she also became the youngest Woman Grandmaster in Asia.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com