Harika back in joint lead

By Manuel Aaron

OROPESA, OCT. 29. The good news from the World Youth Chess Festival is that Dronavalli Harika is back in joint lead with Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine. However, the bad news was that Eesha Karavade, Deep Sengupta, Deepan Chakravarthy and G. Rohit were all defeated.

While Muzychuk was held to a draw by top seed Kateryna Lahno, Harika beat compatriot Saheli Nath in the seventh round on Sunday. Four more rounds remain in this 11-round World Championships for under-10, 12, 14, 16, 18 boys & girls Categories.

Harika revels in open positions where there are queens and rooks. With the Pelikan variation against the Sicilian Defence of compatriot Saheli Nath she got a fluid position with attacking prospects on the king-side. Her central pawns appeared to be vulnerable but they lived a charmed life. At every point when they appeared to be lost she had a tactical trick which saved them and continued the threats.

From the 31st move black gained a clear upperhand when the white queen had to work as the blockader of a black pawn. With the exchange of a pair of queen and rooks Harika got her f and e- pawns passed. Placing the rook behind them she pushed them to queen with excellent technique.

Eesha was beaten by Mongolia's Dulamsuren Yanjiduram in just 26 moves. Yanjiduram gambited a pawn from the black side of a Petroff's Defence to get an attacking position. With her queen- side undeveloped Eesha took the pawn and braved the resultant black attack.

On the 25th move however, she became a bit greedy and captured black's central d5-pawn. This invited a knight sacrifice by black and the advantage went to the Mongol. Instead of giving up her rook for a knight and pawn, Eesha grabbed the knight only to lose her queen through a simple discovered check.

For once Deep Sengupta was clearly outplayed. He used the Richter-Rauzer Attack against the Sicilian Najdorf of International Master Hikaru Nakamura of America. Deep made a series of weak moves, starting with the voluntary exchange of his strong dark square bishop for a knight in a position where the players had castled on opposite wings.

His idea was to speed up his pawn assault on the king- side where black had castled. But Nakamura easily got equality and the initiative on the queen-side. On the 15th turn Deep made a horrible knight retreat to the b1 square. That meant that the white king could not go from c1 to b1 to support the a2 pawn when threatened.

On the 19th move, Nakamura made a brilliant bishop offer with the idea of a disguised discovered attack winning the queen. Thereafter white's position became sterile and he could not get his pieces functioning. Finally, on the 24th move, Deep's queen was pinned by a bishop and then forked by a knight in a

simple combination. Deep soon resigned.

After the game, Nakamura's step-father Sunil Weeramantry of Sri Lanka, who lives as a chess coach in the U.S., said, ``Deep did not understand the system. He was uncharacteristically aggressive.''

Good win for Himanshu

Himanshu Sharma had a thrilling victory in the Under-18 category against Fernandez Romero of Spain. Himanshu played the unusual ...Kf8 when checked in the black side of a Keres Attack in the Sicilian Defence. A little later his opponent also played Kf1 without castling. From this unusual set- up, white sacrificed his h-pawn which was easily digested by Himanshu.

Using the only open b-file in the game, Himanshu sacrificed his bishop for three pawns and got two connected passed pawns on the c and d-files. Himanshu kept the pressure on white with careful play. In desperation, white entered a combination to retrieve one pawn but the simplified position was easier for Himanshu to handle. With a brilliant pawn sacrifice on the 61st move he converted the game into an easy win.

Anton Sitnikov of Ukraine employed the Philidor Defence against Deepan Chakravarthy in the Under-16 section. He grabbed a pawn in the middle-game and won through a mating attack with his bishop on b7.

P. Priya had a comfortable victory over Adela Zakoucka of the Czech Republic with her Alapin Variation against the Sicilian Defence. She won a rook for bishop in the middle-game and then won the rook and minor piece ending without any difficulty.

G. Rohit was devastated in just nine moves. But Abhijeet Gupta and Y. Sandeep won to reach five points.

Indian Results (seventh round):

Under-10 girls: Elena Winkelman (Ger) drew with I. Ramya Krishna (Ind) 4; Laila El Amri (Mar) lost to Dhyani B. Dave (Ind) 5; Akanshka Narain (Ind) 1.5 bt Jennifer Chu (Nor).

Under-10 boys: Luka Paichadze (Geo) lost to Y. Sandeep (Ind) 5; Sankalp Modwal (Ind) 4.5 drew with Volodymur Onyschuk (Ukr); P.P. Prachura (Ind) 4 lost to Michael Thaler (USA); Hrayr Simonyan (Arm) drew with Th. Gobin Luwang (Ind) 5.

Under-12 girls: Saheli Nath (Ind) 5 lost to D. Harika (Ind) 6; Nhat Linh Ivong (Vie) bt Anoori M Shah (Ind) 4; Maria Ignacz (Hun) bt M. Rajadarshini (Ind) 4.5.

Under-12 boys: Vijay Keerthi (Ind) 4.5 bt Vojtech Kastner (Cze); Pogos Nakhapetiane (Rus) lost to Abhijit Gupta (Ind) 5; G. Rohit (Ind) 4.5 lost to Krisztian Szabo (Hun); M. Suraj (Ind) 4.5 bt Frederic Beck (Ger); Lukas Breneis (Aut) drew with R. Srinivasan (Ind) 3; Abhishek Narain (Ind) 2.5 bt David Guillen Berna (Esp).

Under-14 girls: Eesha Karawade (Ind) 4.5 lost to Dulamsuren Yanjinduram (Mon); P. Priya (Ind) 4.5 bt Adela Zakoucka (Cze).

Under-14 boys: Deep Sengupta (Ind) 4.5 lost to Hikaru Nakamura (USA); Tudor Bonev (Bul) lost to Sunil Rangarajan (Ind) 4; Pedro Arroyo (Esp) drew with Samarth Modwal (Ind) 2.

Under-16 girls: Anuradha Beniwal (Ind) 3.5 drew with Sanja Dedijer (Bih).

Under-16 boys: J. Deepan Chakravarthi (Ind) 3.5 lost to Anton Sitnikov (Ukr); S. Poobesh Anand (Ind) 3.5 bt Jovan Milovic (Yug).

Under-18 girls: J.E. Kavitha (Ind) 3 bt Marina Smirnova (Lat).

Under-18 boys: Ernesto Fernandez Romero (Esp) lost to Himanshu Sharma (Ind) 3.5.

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