Indians return without any medal

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE, OCT. 2. Krishnan Sasikiran lost to the top-seeded Russian Vladimir Malakhov in the final round at Yervan, Armenia, on Sunday, and that meant the Indians would return home from the World junior chess championship without a medal, belying expectations.

The second seed thus finished on eight points, as Kamil Miton of Poland and Karen Asrian of the host country, who finished with 8.5 points each, took the silver and bronze respectively, a better progressive score putting the Polish player ahead.

Cuba's Larazo Bruzon, who had won the title on Saturday itself, drew his final round game with Dragan Solak of Yugoslavia.

P. Harikrishna (7) suffered a suprise loss to Zambia's Amon Simutowe, who has 188 less Elo points less than the Indian prodigy. But Surya Shekhar Ganguly took his tally to 7.5 with a win over Zviad Izoria of Georgia.

China's Xu Yuanyuan decided not to rest on her laurels, and defeated the Czech girl Jana Jackova with black pieces. The Chinese girl, who had emerged as the champion by a considerable distance on Saturday, thus finished with 11 points, two full points ahead of Olga Zimina of Russia, the silver medallist.

Yuanyuan, who flew from China as just a FIDE Woman Master, would leave Armenia as a Woman Grandmaster (the title is given directly to the champion) after what was a truly remarkable fortnight for her.

And Wang Yu (8) gave China, the strongest country at the moment in women's chess in the world, more cause for celebrations. She won the bronze, after drawing with India's Nisha Mohota. The Caluctta girl finished with 7.5 points, as did Aarthie Ramaswamy.

Important results (13th round):

Boys: Dragan Solak (Yug) 8.5 drew with Lazaro Bruzon (Cub) 10; Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind) 8 lost to Vladimir Malakhov (Rus) 8.5; Dennis De Vreugt (Ned) 8 drew with Karen Asrian (Arm) 8.5; Kamil Miton (Pol) 8.5 drew with Ghaem Maghami (Ira) 8; Alik Gershon (Isr) 8.5 bt Levon Aronian (Arm) 7.5; Peter Acs (Hun) 7.5 lost to Dimitrij Bunzmann (Ger) 8.5; Amon Simutowe (Zam) 8.5 bt P. Harikrishna (Ind) 7; Pawel Blehm (Pol) 6.5 lost to Dmitry Svetushkin (Mda) 8; Martin Senff (Ger) 7 drew with Zhang Pengxiang (Chn) 7; Alexei Iljushin (Rus) 7 drew with Dmitrij Jakovenko (Rus) 7; Zviad Izoria (Geo) 6.5 lost to Surya Shkehar Ganguly (Ind) 7.5; Baadur Jobava (Geo) 7.5 bt Florian Jenni(Sui) 6.5; Sergey Fedorchuk (Ukr) 7.5 bt Martinez J. Lopez (Esp) 6.5; Gabriel Sargissian (Arm) 7 drew with Emanuel Berg (Swe) 7; Robert Fontaine (Fra) 6.5 drew with Davit Arutunian (Geo) 7.

Girls: Jana Jackova (Cze) 7.5 lost to Xu Yuanyuan (Chn) 11; Sopiko Khukhashvili (Geo) 7.5 drew with Olga Zimina (Rus) 9; Wang Yu (Chn) 8 drew with Nisha Mohota (Ind) 7.5; Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger) 8 bt Lilit Mkrtchian (Arm) 7.5; Aarthie Ramaswamy (Ind) 7.5 bt Sulennis Pina (Cub) 7; Cristina Calotescu (Rom) 6.5 lost to Lela Javakhishvili (Geo) 7.5; Anna Ushenina (Ukr) 6.5 lost to Darja Kaps (Slo) 7.5; Narine Gasparian (Arm) 7 drew with Lilit Galojan (Arm) 7; Tatjana Plachkinova (Bul) 6 lost to Iweta Radziewicz (Pol) 7; Sopio Gvetadze (Geo) 7 bt Mira Dedijer (Bih) 5.

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