Harika continues to share lead

By Manuel Aaron

OROPESA, OCT.30 With three rounds to go, Dronavalli Harika continues to share the lead in the under-12 girls category of the World Youth Chess Festival. At the end of the eighth round last night she is tied with China's Yang Shen. They have 6.5 points each. While Harika only drew against her Hungarian opponent, her co-leader of the previous round, Anna Muzychuk was beaten by Yang Shen. If Harika does not falter in the remaining three rounds, she is sure to win the gold medal as she has a superior Progressive Score than the Chinese whom she has already beaten.

A heartening feature here is that Saheli Nath, also in the under- 12 girls, beat the top seed and Woman International Master Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine and is lying in second spot jointly with four others.

Harika had a colourless and uncharacteristic draw against Maria Ignacz of Hungary. With the white pieces she played the Reti Opening and was ineffectively manoeuvring her pieces most of the time. After regular exchange of pieces they reached a double knight ending with equal pawns and equal chances. They drew on the 42nd move.

Saheli Nath won thanks to WIM Lahno's desperate need to win and reach the top tables. She played the simple Giuco Piano and obtained an equal middle-game position. On the 15th move she made a pseudo sacrifice of a bishop, ostensibly to win a pawn. But in that transaction Saheli emerged one pawn up. The Ukraine girl's attempt to win back the pawn was well countered by Saheli who manoeuvred skilfully to win a second pawn and reach a queen and knight ending. When Saheli threatened to queen her f- pawn, Lahno gave up the hopeless battle. This was a good game by Saheli Nath and she still has good medal prospects.

Deep Sengupta had an easy victory over Egypt's Amin Bassem. The Egyptian handled the King's Indian Defence in an unusual way conceding easy equality to Deep. On the 15th move with his rooks still not developed, Bassem entered a series of exchanges. At the end of the exchanges Bassem managed to keep material equality, but all of his pieces, save his queen, were undeveloped. Deep played clever chess to trap a white knight on f6 and win the game on the 25th move.

In the under-14 girls, both Indians in the fray, Eesha Karavade and P.Priya were defeated and have only 4.5 points. They have no chances of winning a medal.

Deepan Chakravarthy beat Victor Ianocichin of Maldova in an amusing manner. With the threat of queening a central pawn he pushed his h-pawn without any support in a rook and bishop ending. Then he got the white rook entombed at h2 with his bishop on g2 and pawn on h3. Deepan could not capture that rook, but the rook was immobilised. At this phase of the game Deepan's rook successfully duelled with white's bishop and achieved a winning position. Later Deepan simplified it into the Lucena position which wins in the rook ending.

In the under-18 category Himanshu Sharma was held to a draw by International Master Manuel Perez Candelario of Spain in an interesting game. In a middle-game with each player having a queen, rook and bishop the Spaniard proposed a draw. At that stage Himanshu was a pawn down, but black's key pawns were fixed on dark squares, the same as the bishops on the board. The position was good for Himanshu but as he was a pawn down and the IM was proposing a draw, he agreed.

Tiny Dhyani Dave reached six points and is now sharing the third spot with five other girls in the under-10 girls category. She defeated the Turkish player Kubra Ozturk with a fair amount of fireworks starting with a discovered attack against the Turk's black queen.

Three Indians are one point behind the leaders in the World under-12 boys championship. G.Rohit, Vijay Keerthi and M.Suraj are on 5.5 points. However, their chances of winning a medal are a little dubious as there are ten players in the two score groups above them. Moreover these players are not quite consistent. They win on one day and lose on the next.

Vijay Keerthi reached 5.5 points by trapping the queen of Russia's Mansour Mingatchev.

Indian results:(eighth round): Under-10 Girls: I.Ramya Krishna (Ind) 4 Monika Dilova (Bul); Dhyani B. Dave (Ind) 6 bt Kubra Ozturk (Tur);

Cristina Tartacuta (Mdv) bt Akanshka Narain (Ind) 1.5.

Under-10 Boys: Quang Liem Le (Vie) bt Y.Sandeep (Ind) 5; Liren Ding (Chn) bt Sankalp Modwal (Ind) 4.5;

Khoi Hoang (Aus) lost to P.P.Prachura (Ind) 4; Michael Thaler (USA) drew Th.Gobin Luwang (Ind) 5.5.

Under-12 Girls: D.Harika (Ind) 6.5 drew Maria Ignacz (Hun); Kateryna Lahno (Ukr) lost to Saheli Nath (Ind) 6; Anoori M. Shah (Ind) 4 lost to Molly Moruzzi (Eng);

M.Rajadarshini (Ind) 4.5 lost to Madona Bokuchava (Geo).

Under-12 Boys:Mansour Mingatchev (Rus) lost to Vijay Keerthi (Ind) 5.5; Abhijit Gupta (Ind) 5 lost to Truongson Nguyen Ngoc (Vie); Atila Figura (Ger) lost to G.Rohit (Ind) 5.5; Jonathan Dourerassou (Fra) lost to M.Suraj (Ind) 5.5;

R.Srinivasan (Ind) 4 bt Thibaud L'Huillier (Fra); Joseff Thomas (Wls) bt Abhishek Narain (Ind) 2.5.

Under-14 Girls: Belen Sarquis (Arg) bt Eesha Karawade (Ind) 4.5; Melanie Verot (Fra) bt P.Priya (Ind) 4.5.

Under-14 Boys: Bassem Amin (Egy) lost to Deep Sengupta (Ind) 5.5; Sunil Rangarajan (Ind) 5 bt Filip Pancevski (Mkd); Samarth Modwal (Ind) 2 lost to Mihail Bantic (Yug).

Under-16 Girls: Alba Linares Quero (Esp) lost to Anuradha Beniwal (Ind) 4.5.

Under-16 Boys: Victor Ianocichin (Mda) lost to J.Deepan Chakravarthi (Ind) 4.5; Jacobo Paredes (Esp) S.Poobesh Anand (Ind) 3.5.

Under-18 Girls: Margarida Coimbra (Por) lost to J.E.Kavitha (Ind) 4.

Under-18 Boys: Himanshu Sharma (Ind) 5 drew Manuel Pebes (Esp).

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