The Hindu : Sport / Chess : India `A' draws with Uzbekistan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 08, 2004

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Sport - Chess

India `A' draws with Uzbekistan

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

KOZHIKODE, JULY 7. India `A' captain S. Arun Prasad scored a convincing win over the highest-rated player and Grandmaster in waiting, Timur Gareev of Uzbekistan, but his side needs to play above itself in the final round on Thursday if it wants to win a medal in the 10th Youth Chess Olympiad.

India `A' has 19.5 points after drawing with Uzbekistan 2-2 in the eighth round at Taj Residency on Wednesday and is in the joint third position along with Iran and Uzbekistan.

And in the final round, India `A' is paired against holder and top seed Hungary, while Uzbekistan has an easier rival in Kazakhstan. Iran, though, is unlikely to have an easy outing against India `B'.

Uzbekistan looks more likely to get a medal than Iran, India `A', India `B' (18.5 points) and Kazakhstan (18).

Now China has a two-point lead over Hungary after its 3.5-0.5 win over India `C'.

China logged 24.5 points and shouldn't have too many problems against India `C' on Thursday, while a decent performance in the last round would fetch Hungary the silver.

China faced unexpected resistance on the third board. Meenu Rajendran held Xie Desun to a draw, making a mockery of the nearly 400 Elo-points difference between them. The Kerala girl scored a memorable draw in 68 moves from the black side of an Italian Game.

Arun won the Queen's Gambit Defence in 47 moves, following a potent king-side attack. Gareev, with white pieces, was forced to give a centre pawn before slumping to his first defeat of the tournament.

The results (eighth round): China (24.5) bt India `E' (16) 3.5-0.5 (Wang Hao bt J. Rajasurya, Zhou Jianchao bt S. Nishanth, Xie Desun drew with Meenu Rajendran, Li Chao bt Kajri Choksi); Hungary (22.5) bt India `B' (18.5) 3-1 (Tamas Banusz drew with K. Vijay Keerthi, Denes Boros drew with Pratik Shriwas, David Berczes bt Parimarjan Negi, Kristian Szabo bt Mary Ann Gomes); Uzbekistan (19.5) drew with India `A' (19.5) 2-2 (Timur Gareev lost to S. Arun Prasad, Dzhurabek Khamrkulov drew with G.N. Gopal, Andrey Kvon bt K. Nikhilesh Kumar, Jamshid Mustafaev drew with Rahul Sangma), Iran (19.5) bt Sri Lanka `A' (15.5) 3-1 (Omid Noroozi drew with I.T. Palawatta, Atousa Pourkashiyan bt T. De Silva, Homayoon Toufighi drew with Y.D.B. Madugalle, Mohammad Khademi bt D.M.C. Wijayawardane); India `C' 17.5 drew Kazakshstan (18) 2-2 (Soumya Swaminathan bt Marat Alaguzov, Sriram Sarja drew with D. Medirbaev, N. Raghavi lost to D. Issabayev, P. Sivasankari drew with N. Baltabaev); Australia (16) bt India `D' (15.5) 2.5-1.5 (Vincent Suttor drew with K. Prasanna, Dusan Stojic lost to Kiran Mohanty, James Cronan bt K. Narayanan, Ruperton Lugo bt M. Rajadarshini); Malaysia (15) bt South Africa (13) 2.5-1.5; Turkey (16.5) bt India `F' (8.5) 4-0 (Apaydhin Fethi bt V.K. Sindhu, Deruns Berg bt B.D. Impana, Sirin Atakan bt Shalmali Gagare, Yildiz Betul Cemre bt R. Ganesh); Sri Lanka `B' (14.5) bt Sri Lanka `E' (6.5) 3-1; Sri Lanka `D' (11.5) bt Sri Lanka `C' (12) 2.5-1.5.

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