MUMBAI, June 13: This year is proving a big one for Pallavi Shah. After having won the National Junior title at Calicut, Pallavi won a bronze in the under-18 section of the Asian age-group Championships at Rasht, Iran recently. And now, the 13-game round robin norm has taken her agonisingly close to the IWM title.Pallavi had won her first IWM norm during the 1996 Commonwealth Championships at Calcutta. That was of 10 games. The 13-game norm here takes her tally to 23, falling one short of the required 24 for title. But she also has to take her rating to over 2200 to get the title.
Pallavi, 18, who has a good chance of qualifying for the Indian team for the Olympiad, will have her coach Anup Deshmukh for company, if she makes it to the squad. Deshmukh, a good family friend, was her tutor for two years in the early '90s when he stayed with the Shahs at Kolhapur. Pallavi represented the country in the 1996 Olympiad at Yerewan, Armenia, where the Indian team finished 23rd. It was on the heels of Pallavi'sbest performance in the National A at Salem where she finished fourth.
Pallavi had qualified for National A for the first time four years ago at Bangalore when, at 14, she was the youngest player to not only figure in the premier championships, but also to get a rating.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
