Xu Jun emerges champion; three Indians qualify for World meet

By S. Sabanayakan

KOLKATA, AUG. 17. Three Indians, IM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, GM Dibyendu Barua and IM Pentyala Harikrishna, have qualified for the fourth world knockout chess championship to be held in November.

It would have been a double treat for Harikrishna had he achieved the GM title, but the 15-year-old, playing with white pieces and needing one point from the last round, drew against GM elect Eshan Ghaem Maghami Iran to miss the title by half a point. Harikrishna would now have to start afresh to get his fourth norm for the title.

Chinese GM Xu Jun, who dominated the third Asian Individual chess championship that concluded at the Gorky Sadan here on Friday, emerged the unbeaten champion to win the gold medal with 8.5 points. With this he won the first prize of $12,000 as well. GM Saidali Iuldachev of Uzbekistan finished second with 8 points to take silver and pocket $10,000.

Ganguly was tied with three others, IM Zhang Pengxiang of China, Uzbek GM Alexei Barsov and GM elect Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran, at 7.5 in the joint third place. In the tie-break, Ganguly pipped the other three for the bronze place. All four would get $5,700.

The first ten position holders qualified for the World meet in which there were three Indians, Ganguly, GM Dibyendu Barua and IM Harikrishna. Apart from them, Jun, Iuldachev, Zhang, Barsov, Maghami, Chinese IM Le Wenliang, Qatari GM Mohamad Al- Modiahki all came in the first ten. Since, Al-Modiahki had already qualified from a Zonal, and the 11th placed Uzbek GM Shukhrat Safin too made it, the 12th placed Chinese IM Yu Shaoteng would get the final berth from this championship.

India would be sending a strong five-member squad to the World meet. Apart from the three who qualified from here, Krishnan Sasikiran and Viswanathan Anand were the others. For Barua, who drew in 10 moves to ensure a berth, the upcoming World meet would be the fourth championship.

Entire India waited for the news of Harikrishna earning the GM title. The Indian IM aiming to become the youngest GM after Anand, should have pressed for victory in the penultimate round on Thursday, but he did not. In the final round today, he again played with white pieces against Maghami and the game began in Queens pawn opening.

Harikrishna conceded the advantage to his opponent by some tame moves in the middle game. Maghami, who needed to win the game to ensure the silver medal and a higher prize fund, did not take any risk and offered the draw in 28 moves. ``I am really disappointed in missing out the title, said Harikrishna to The Hindu. Harikrishna was under pressure losing out a vital 15 minutes before reaching the playing venue owing to communication problem. ``I did not have any realistic chance of winning. When he offered the draw I accepted it'', said the IM, who would get the next shot at the title at the Commonwealth chess meet beginning in London from Saturday. The Indiana contingent would leave for London on Saturday morning.

Interestingly, excepting the third seed GM Evgeny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan, who finished 19th overall, the second seed Chinese GM Peng Xiaomin, fourth seed GM Pavel Kostur of Kazakhstan, fifth seed GM Utut Adianto of Indonesia and GM K. Sasikiran of India finished beyond the 24th place and out of the prize money list.

lThe results (11th and final round): Xu Jun (Chn) 8.5 drew with Alexei Barsov (Uzb) 7.5; Saidali Iuldachev (Uzb) 8 drew with Surya Sekhar Ganguly (Ind) 7.5; P. Harikrishna (Ind) 7 drew with Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri) 7.5; Petr Kostenko (Kaz) 7 drew with Yu Shaoteng (Chn) 7; Li Wenliang (Chn) 7 drew with Dibyendu Barua (Ind) 7; Zhang Pengxiang (Chn) 7.5 bt Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 6.5; Evgeny Vladimirov (Kaz) 6.5 drew with Mohamad Al-Modiahki (Qat) 7; Tahir Vakhidov (Uzb) 6.5 drew with Wang Zili (Chn) 6.5; Yurtaev Leonid (Kgz) 6 lost to Shukhrat Safin (Uzb) 7; Sergey Zagrebelny (Uzb) 6.5 drew with Eugene Torre

(Phi) 6.5; Wang Yue (Chn) 6 lost to Anh Dung Nguyen (Vei) 7; Odeev Handszar (Tkm) 7 bt Abdulla Al-Rakib (Ban) 6; Liang Chong (Chn) 6 drew with Peng Xiaomin (Chn) 6; Vladimir Magai (Kgz) 6.5 bt K. Sasikiran (Ind) 5.5; Murtas Kazhzaleyev (Kaz) 6.5 bt Rogelio Antonio Jr (Phi) 5.5; Darmen Sadvakasov (Kaz) 6 drew with Liang Jingrong (Chn) 6; Orazly Annageldyev (Tkm) 5.5 lost to Wu Wenjin (Chn) 6.5; D.V. Prasad (Ind) 5 lost to Pavel Kotsur (Kaz) 6; Utut Adianto (Ina) 6 bt Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 5; Vladimir Egin (Uzb) 5 lost to B. Villamayor (Phi) 6; P.M. Thipsay (Ind) 5 lost to Rolando Nolte (Phi) 6; Mark Paragua (Phi) 5 drew with Amir Mallahi (Iri) 5.5; Abhijit Kunte (Ind) 5 drew with Enamul Hossain (Ban) 5; P. Konguvel (Ind) 4.5 lost to Jamshed Isaev (Tjk) 5.5; Fernie Donguines (Phi) 4.5 lost to Reefat Bin Sattar (Ban) 5.5; Sandipan Chanda (Ind) 5 drew with Morteza Mahjoob (Iri) 5; Aleksandar Wohl (Aus) 5.5 bt Liu Dede (Ina) 4.5; Thien Hai Dao (Vei) 4.5 drew with Ronald Dableo (Phi) 4.5; Sriram Jha (Ind) 4 lost to Hoang Thanh Trang (Vei) 5; Lanka Ravi (Ind) 4.5 drew with Mahmood Lodhi (Pak) 4.5; Salaua Izmukhambetov (Kaz) 5 bt Anvar Nazarov (Tjk) 4; Manfuzur Rahman (Ban) 5 bt Elshan Moradiabadi (Iri) 4; N.K. Mishra (Ind) 5 bt Barlo Nadera (Phi) 3.5; Imad Hakki (Syr) 4.5 bt Arash Roghani (Iri) 3.5; Milan Turpanov (Kgz) 4.5 bt Mohamad Al Sayed (Qat) 3.5; TDR Pieris (Sri) 2.5 lost to Taibur Rahman (Ban) 4.5; Abu Sufian Sakil (Ban) 2 lost to Chito Garma (Phi) 4; Mohsen Ghorbani (Iri) 3 bye.

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