Good opening round for Indians

By Manuel Aaron

OROPESA, OCT. 13. The 20-player Indian contingent had a good opening round at the World Youth chess festival, which decides which boys and girls will win the World Chess titles for 2000 in the categories of under-10, 12, 14, 16, and 18. For the third year running this festival is being held in the Mediterranean Holiday Resort at Oropesa, Spain.

Sixteen of the Indians, including favourites Harikrishna and Humpy won their games. Only one player drew and just three Indians lost. This is an 11-round Swiss tournament with two rest days.

Harikrishna played a good game against Michael Buscar of Canada. He inflicted a backward c6 pawn on black in a semi- Slav defence. Harikrishna sacrificed a bishop to trap the black queen and when the black forces retreated in disarray, he sprung a rook sacrifice. Caught in the centre with cross checks, black resigned.

Humpy was equally impressive against local girl Ana R. Garcia. In a middle game skirmish Humpy won a rook for knight. Later Garcia lost a knight as well and resigned on the 26th move. Humpy's most serious rival, Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia was held to a draw by Vietnam's Huang Thi Bao.

Dronavalli Harika (under-10 girls) won quickly against Stoned Rees of Wales. Mistakes on the 11th and 13th moves cost black a rook and the game.

In the under-18 girls' section, J.E. Kavitha had a tough battle against Bulgaria's Lubka Georgieva. The opening transposed to a Breyer variation in the Ruy Lopez from a bishops opening. The game revolved around the control of the f7 square. On the 37th move, Kavitha made a knight sacrifice on f5 based on an immobile black knight on e7. She won on the 50th turn.

Eesha Karawade broke local hearts by defeating Spanish favourite Sabrina Guttiered. After a well controlled middle game she won through a passed pawn on the e6 square.

Nabella Farheen destroyed Uzbekistan's Ergasevha Sardinoz with some tricky middle game manoeuvres. Iswarya Shobana defeated Mexico's Trejjo Moraless with her centre counter defence.

Shraddha Samani had an eventful victory over Kazakhstan's Tatiana Uksova. In a drawn position Tatiana overlooked a sneaky mate threat and lost.

lOther results: Shirley Ben-Dak (US) lost to Kruttika Nadig; V.K. Sindhu lost to Yulia Kim (Rus); Saptarshi Roy bt Jean Paul Lamastus; Abijeet Gupta bt Alexander Pak (Uzb); Mageshchandran bt Taber Gootali (Uzb); Sonwani bt Sanchez (Spain); Sai Srinivas bt Ruperto (Aus); A. Kore drew with Zorka Jure (Slov); Deep Sengupta bt S. Naranjo (Col); M. Abhinav lost to David Berczes (Hun).

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