The Hindu : Harikrishna, Harika win under-18 crowns

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 01, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Harikrishna, Harika win under-18 crowns
By Rakesh Rao

K. Sasikiran (centre) who won the Asian Open chess championship in Bikaner on Thursday, flanked by Harika Dronavalli (left) and P. Harikrishna, the winners of the Asian under-18 titles. - Photo: R.V. Moorthy

BIKANER, FEB. 28. In keeping with the expectations, K. Sasikiran wasted little time in going through the formalities of a 10-move draw with Dibyendu Barua and won the Asian Open chess championship at the Laxmi Niwas Palace here on Thursday.

A winning tally of 8.5 points from 11 rounds not only earned the 21-year-old from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Rs. one lakh but also a fourth successive title.

Sasikiran's streak of success began with the AICF Golden Jubilee championship at Kozhikode in December. He shared the top spot in Hastings in January. Earlier this month, he regained the National title at Nagpur.

``Honestly, I did not play to my full potential here,'' said Sasikiran and was quick to add that in terms of quality, his performance in the National `A' was ``much, much better.'' But then, it must be remembered that considering the none-too-formidable field, Sasikiran was not required to work too hard to remain unbeaten.

``Really, for me, this title is nothing special. What is important for me is that I gained 13 Elo points,'' said Sasikiran, whose rating as of today, stands at 2613 as against 2569 in the current rating list.

Following a five-way tie for the second spot at 7.5 points, Uzbek GM Marat Dzhumaev was declared runner-up on superior progressive score. A last-round draw with Abhijit Kunte was enough for Dzhumaev to finish ahead R.B. Ramesh, P. Hari Krishna and Rahul Shetty. They received Rs. 37,000 each. Those finishing between 13 to 25 places were given Rs. 2,400 each.

Ramesh, however, missed his second GM-norm after a draw with Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami. Ramesh needed a win to gain a nine-game norm.

On the brighter side, P. Magesh Chandran completed his maiden 12-game IM-norm, despite losing to top seed Utut Adianto. In fact, Magesh only had to face the Indonesian today to fulfil the technical requirement.

As a result, Magesh became the third player from the tournament to gain a norm. Earlier, Somak Palit had made a 10- game IM-norm and Harika Dronavalli, a 11-game WIM norm.

Hari, who finished fourth overall, and Harika had the added satisfaction of being crowned the Asian (under-18) champions. With this, both Hari and Harika have earned seedings in the World (under-18) championships, besides cash incentives from the Union Government.

Abhijeet Gupta, a 12-year-old from Bhilwara, held Tejas Bakre after sacrificing a minor piece to finish eighth overall, and second in the under-18 section. But the biggest gainer of the day was Rahul Shetty. The Indian Airlines' player defeated S. Poobesh Anand for his fourth successive victory and finished a creditable sixth. The caravan now moves to Raipur where a much-stronger event will be played from March 5 to 15.

The results (eleventh round): K. Sasikiran (8.5) drew with Dibyendu Barua (7.5); Abhijit Kunte (7) drew with Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) (7.5); P. Hari Krishna (7.5) drew with Tahir Vakhidov (Uzb) (6.5); Utut Adianto (Indo) (7) bt P. Magesh Chandran (7); Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Ira) (5.5) drew with R. B. Ramesh (7.5); Abhijit Gupta (7) drew with Tejas Bakre (7); Rahul Shetty (7.5) bt S. Poobesh Anand (6); K. Ratnakaran (7) bt Shashikant Kutwal (5.5); Sriram Jha (6.5) bt Somak Palit (5.5); C.J. Arvind (6) drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (6); Aarthie Ramaswamy (5.5) drew with Roktim Bandopadhyay (6); D.V. Prasad (6) bt Deepsen Gupta (5); Swati Ghate (5.5) drew with Harika Dronavalli (5.5); Prathmesh Mokal (6) bt Himanshu Sharma (5); Mohammad Arif (5) lost to J. Deepan Chakkravarthy (6); Saheli Dhar-Barua (5) lost to Vedant Goswami (6); P.D.S. Girinath (5) drew with Y. Pratibha (5); G. Rohit (5.5) bt Nisha Mohota (4.5); Muthu Priyadarshana (Sri) (4.5) lost to G.N. Gopal (5.5); H. Nilavoli (4.5) drew with J.E. Kavitha (4.5); Ahmed Minhazuddin (Ban) (4.5) bt Thushari Mahawaththa (Sri) (4); Sofiya V. James (1.5) lost to Eesha Karvade (5); Usha Upadhayaya (1.5) lost to S. Nabeela Farheen (5); K. Narayanan (4) drew with Liza A. Samina (Ban) (4); C. Delphin (4.5) bt Manjula V. James (3); Himanshu Kumar (4) drew with Abhyudaya Rajpurohit (3.5).

Final placings:

Overall (with prize-money): 1. K. Sasikiran (Rs. 1,00,000; 2-6. Marat Dzhumaev, R. B. Ramesh, P. Hari Krishna, Dibyendu Barua and Rahul Shetty (Rs. 37,000 each; 7-12. P. Magesh Chandran, Abhijeet Gupta, Abhijit Kunte, Utut Adianto, Tejas Bakre and K. Ratnakaran (Rs. 5,600 each); 13-14. Tahir Vakhidov and Sriram Jha (Rs. 2,400 each); 15-23. Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury, Roktim Bandopadyay, D. V. Prasad, S. Poobesh Anand, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, Vedant Goswami, J. Deepan Chakkravarthy, Prathmesh Mokal and C. J. Arvind (Rs. 2,400 each); 24-25. Somak Palit and G. Rohit (Rs. 2,400 each).

Under-18: Boys: 1. P. Hari Krishna, 2. Abhijeet Gupta, 3. S. Poobesh Anand; Girls: 1. Harika Dronavalli, 2. Y. Pratibha, 3. Eesha Karavade.

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