Mixed day for Indians

By Manuel Aaron

OROPESA (SPAIN), OCT. 14. It was a day of fluctuating fortunes for India in the second round of the World Youth Chess Festival at Oropesa, Spain, in the under-10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 categories being held separately for boys and girls. Nine Indian players won, nine lost while two others drew.

Six Indians - Deep Sengupta, Abhijeet Gupta, D. Harika, Iswarya Shobana, Humpy and Eesha Karawade - are among the leaders with two full points each. Nine more rounds remain in this 11-round Swiss system tournament with two rest days.

Koneru Humpy strategically outplayed Serap Keskan of Turkey with the black pieces. Humpy played the Queens Indian Defence and had no problems in reaching a comfortable position. She accepted hanging pawns on c5 and d5 which cramped white's game. Unable to develop normally, the Turk had to allow Humpy to create a passed pawn on the d-file. This pawn advanced with great power and won the game on the 48th move.

Harika used the Grunfeld Defence against Claudia Robles Garcia of Spain with telling effect. With the black pieces, she got a slight initiative after the early exchange of queens.

Under pressure, Garcia overlooked a combination which lost her the a2 pawn. She thought that it could not be taken, but Harika had anticipated it and showed good tactics. Harika won on the 39th move.

Iswarya Shobana defeated Aytan Agayeva of Azerbaijan in a thrilling tussle. Shobana played an attacking game against the Pirc Defence but missed chances in the early middlegame. Agayeva held the upperhand, but she also slipped and Shobana played the attack precisely by pinning a black knight on f7.

Deep Sengupta, who defeated Jojna David of Georgia, was in deep trouble when he lost his restaurant food card. The organisers are demanding that he pay 2500 pesetas (about Rs. 800) per day for a new card.

The whole Indian contingent is behind Deep. Hopefully, Deep's card would be found and returned to the organisers. Last year, Harikrishna lost his tournament entry ID card which was found after four days.

lThe results: Markus Viljanen (Fin) lost to M. Abhinav 1; Rashad Hasanov (Aze) bt Sai Srinivas 1; Pogos Nakhapitiane (Rus) lost to Abhijeet Gupta 2; Amir Zaibi lost to Akshayraj Kore 1.5; Deep Sengupta 2 bt David Jojna (Geo); Arkadih Naiditsch (Ger) drew P. Harikrishna 1.5; Himanshu Kumar lost to Vlad Barnaure (Rom); Saptarshi Roy 1 lost to Nikolay Yardonov (Bul); Enrique Llobell Cortell (Spa) bt Yashpal Singh Sonwani 1; Arkadih Naiditsch (Ger) bt P. Mageshchandran; Claudia Robles Garcia (Spa) lost to D. Harika 2; V.K. Sindhu 1 bt Salome Kazhomia (Geo); Kruttika Nadig 1 lost to Eleanora Ambrosi (Ita); Serap Kesken (Tur) lost to Humpy 2; S. Nabeela Farheen 1 lost to Roza Eynullayeva (Aze); L. Iswarya Shobana 2 bt Aytan Agayeva (Aze); Annie Weiss (U.S.) lost to Eesha Karawade 2; Vera Papadopoulu (Gre) bt Tania Sachdev 1; Katarzyna Toma (Pol) drew Shraddha Samani 1.5 and Zeynab Mamedyarova (Aze) bt J.E. Kavitha 1.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Next     : Kramnik ahead after third game