The Hindu : Ramya surprises Harika

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 21, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Ramya surprises Harika

By Manuel Aaron

Iraklio (Greece) NOV. 20. Inapuri Ramya Krishna of Hyderabad sprang a surprise in the World girls' under-12 chess championship by beating compatriot and second seed Dronavalli Harika on the top board last night. Ramya Krishna is now the sole leader in the under-12 girls. She has 5.5 points and is followed half a point behind by a group of four girls with five points each.

Five rounds remain in this World Youth Chess Festival. There were other great results too for India. Parimarjan Negi, the Asian under-10 champion from Delhi is among the three leaders in the under-10 section.

In the under-14, both G. Rohit and Deep Sengupta are among the five leaders with five points each and will be playing on the top two tables when the seventh round is played tomorrow morning. And grandmaster Pentyala Harikrishna who is half a point behind the sole leader Ferenc Berkes, will get a chance to defeat him in the seventh round and wrest the lead.

Today is the only rest day in the festival.

The last time that Ramya Krishna played Harika was in 1999. Last night she played the Slav Defence of her own brand, departing from standard opening play. Harika exploited the black situation and got an advantageous middle-game. However Harika got carried away by the prospect of getting a dangerous, advanced passed pawn on b6 and gave up many pawns on the king-side in a queenless middle-game.

By the 29th move, Harika was two pawns down but with a passed pawn on b6. Unfortunately she had a bishop on a7 and a rook on b7 effectively bottled up. It was as if she was playing without her two important pieces. On the otherhand Ramya's pieces were not tied up and could pursue an active plan. At this stage of the game the players had two rooks and a bishop apiece. Gradually, Ramya advanced her extra pawns on the king-side and forced Harika to do something about her bottled up forces on the queen side. For the second day Ramya showed her talent in the endgame and soon reached a rook ending with three extra pawns. Harika gave up on

the 78th move when Ramya queened a pawn and there was no possibility of a stalemate. In the next round Ramya plays white against Yixin Ding of China.

Parimarjan Negi played a very beautiful game against Xin Luo of China. He handled his knight most skilfully against the Sicilian Pelikan variation of the Chinese and did not avoid the exchange of queens. With clever play he won a pawn on the 25th move. On the 29th turn he gave up a rook for a black bishop and then played a brilliant, quiet rook move, setting up a deadly discovered check. Negi thus won a rook on the 30th move. But he did not let up. On the 35th, he came up with yet another quiet rook move, threatening mate. The Chinese gave up on the 45th move in a completely lost position.

* The results (sixth round):

Under-10 Boys: Parimarjan Negi 5.5 bt Xin Luo (Chn); Y. Sandeep 4.5 bt Zvonimir Ivekovic (Cro); P.P. Prachura 3.5 drew with Raphael Delivre (Fra).

Under-12 Boys: C.R.G. Krishna 3.5 drew with Emre Can (Tur); Iskos Alexandros (Gre) drew with Aswin Jayaram 3.5; Batbold Nyamdavaa (Mgl) lost to Subody Lakhey 4; Simon Khazalia (Geo) lost to Sai Srinivas 3.5; Sankalp Modwal 2.5 drew with Adrien Boukobza (Fra).

Under-14 Boys: Karel Malinovsky (Cze) lost to G. Rohit 4.5; Deep Sengupta 5 bt Salvijus Bercys (Ltu); Nikhilesh Kumar 3.5 lost to Sergei Zhygalko (Blr); Namra Haren Pandya 2 lost to Min Yang Evan Yeo (Sin).

Under-16 Boys: Daniel Stellwagen (Nld) bt Somak Palit 3.5; Deepan Chakravarthy 3.5 lost to Viktor Erdos (Hun).

Under-18 Boys: Dmitry Schneider (USA) lost to Harikrishna 5; Panagio Kazantzidis (Gre) bt Poobesh Anand 2.

Under-10 Girls: Mitra Hejazipour (IRI) bt Manogna Mandava 4; Jovana Vojinovic (Yug) bt G. Madanasri 3.5; Ketevan Tsatsalashvili (Geo) bt P. Lakshmi Sahithi 3.5.

Under-12 Girls: Harika 4.5 lost to Ramya Krishna 5.5; Kajri Choksi 4 lost to Ozlem Gencer (Tur).

Under-14 Girls: Karina Ambartsumova (Rus) drew with Krutika Nadig 4.5; Zofia Domanj (Yug) lost to Saheli Nath 4.

Under-16 Girls: Tania Sachdev 4 lost to Jolanta Zawadzka (Pol); Eesha Karavade 4.5 drew with Natalia Zdebskaja (Ukr); Vera Papadopoulou (Gre) bt Amruta Mokal (3).

Under-18 Girls: Tina Mietzner (Ger) lost to P. Priya 3.5.

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