Indians falter

BIKANER, JAN. 10. Indians were forced to look for cover as their lowly-rated opponents recorded gains at the Asian Youth chess championship here on Tuesday.

The top seed and World under-12 champion Deepsen Gupta suffered a second straight defeat, while defending champion Abhijit Gupta was made to bite the dust by sixth-seeded Njoc Troongson of Vietnam.

Seyed Javadelvi Mogh of Iran emerged the sole leader with two perfect points in the under-14 boys' category after the second round.

The Iranian was followed in the second spot by two Indians - Deepan Chakravarthy and R. Siddartha - with 1.5 points apiece.

Meanwhile, Navneet Detha created a sensation by forcing a draw with Tologontegin Semetey of Kyrgyzstan after 39 moves in a Sicilian defence game.

In the girls' under-12, top seed Saheli Nath forced a draw with Vietnam's Thu Trang, while D. Harika won her match against P.C. Waduge of Sri Lanka comfortably. V.K. Sandhu of India defeated compatriot Raj Darshan. Top-seeded Esha Karavade suffered a defeat against Thib Otram of Vietnam in the girls' under-14 as India recorded a dismal day here.

- PTI

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