The Hindu : McShane takes lead in men's section

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 12, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

McShane takes lead in men's section

By Rakesh Rao

England's Luke McShane (left) making a move in his fourth round game against David Smerdon of Australia in the Junior World chess championship at Panaji on Wednesday. McShane led the table with four points. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy

PANAJI DEC. 11. In these difficult days for the English cricketers touring Down Under, the news of compatriot and Grandmaster Luke McShane overpowering Aussie David Smerdon in the World junior chess championship may well bring a smile or two on the faces of Nasser Hussain's men.

It must be said that unlike their cricketers, the British chess players have always performed better when facing Australia. In such a background, the victory of McShane was hardly surprising as it put him in the lead with four points after as many rounds at the Cedade de Goa here on Wednesday.

From the host's point of view, P. Hari Krishna and Surya Sekhar Ganguly were held in contrasting manners by lesser-rated opponents. Prathamesh Mokal proved equal to teammate Sandipan Chanda, the third strongest Indian in the fray.

National sub-junior champion G. Rohit held 19th seeded Greek Dmitrios Mastrovasilis, while runner-up Akshayraj Kore maintained his trend of holding overseas rivals and this time it was Lithuanian Asauskas Henrikas. Deepan Chakkravarty drew with Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, even as Poobesh Anand and P. Phoobalan gained half-point each from higher-rated opponents. In the day's longest match, S. Kidambi took 99 moves to win against Dmitry Poliakov of Belarus.

In the girls' section, the top seed Koneru Humpy expectedly stopped 10th-seeded Chinese Tian Tian to join four others in the lead. Just as Humpy was completing her 59-move victory in Sicilian Defence, overnight leaders, Russia's Nadezhda Kosintseva and China's Wang Yu drew their match on the top board.

India's second-best bet Dronavalli Harika suffered her first loss but Tania Sachdev and Eesha Karavade held stronger rivals to bring some cheer to the Indian camp. Y. Pratibha blundered a minor piece early and lost to French girl Sophie Millet.

The results: Fourth round (Indians unless stated):

Boys: David Smerdon (Aus) (3) lost to Luke McShane (Eng) (4); Sergie Azarov (Blr) (3) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm) (3); Dmitri Yakovenko (Rus) (3) drew with Sergey Erenburg (Ice) (3); P. Hari Krishna (3) drew with Vladimir Potkin (Rus) (3); Ferenc Berkes (Hun) (3) drew with Neelotpal Das (3); Rustem Sadykov (Kaz) (3) drew with Ni Hua (3); Surya Sekhar Ganguly (3) drew with Stefan Bromberger (Ger) (3); Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) (3) bt Amon Simutowe (Zam) (2); Yannick Gozzoli (Fra) (2.5) drew with Kamil Miton (Pol) (2.5); Stephen Ginert (Can) (3) bt Artyom Timofeev (Rus) (2); Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Ira) (2.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarty (2.5); Prathamesh Mokal (2.5) drew with Sandipan Chanda (2.5); G. Rohit (2.5) drew with Dmitrios Mastrovasilis (Gre) (2.5); Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol) (2.5) drew with S. Poobesh Anand (2.5); Meylis Annaberdiev (Tkm) (2.5) drew with S. Satyapragyan (2.5); P. Phoobalan (2.5) drew with Stefan Kristjansson (Ice) (2.5); Mark Paragua (Phi) (1.5) lost to Varghan Darban (Ira) (3); Ernesto Inarkiev (Rus) (2.5) bt Vikramaditya Kamble (1.5); Rishipal Singh (2) drew with Jeremic Veljiko (Yug) (2); Athula Russel (Sri) (1.5) lost to Roman Bar (Isr) (2.5); S. Kidambi (2.5) bt Dmitry Poliakov (Blr) (1.5); D. Kjartansson (Ice) (1.5) lost to Perez Candelario (Spn) (2.5); Lim Yee Weng (Mal) (2) drew with Bogdan Vioreanu (Rom) (2); G.N. Gopal (1.5) lost to Pontus Carisson (Swe) (2.5); Saptarshi Roy Choudhury (2) drew with Steve Geirnaert (Bel) (2); Sam Collins (Ire) (2.5) bt Wendali Wolfgang (Ger) (1.5); Akshayraj Kore (2) drew with Asauskas Henrikas (Lit) (2); Arghyadip Das (2) drew with R. Siddharth (2); Arjun Tiwari (2) drew with Li Qun (Chn) (2); Nikhilesh Kumar (1) lost to Jiri Jirka (Cze) (2); Preetham Sharma (2) bt Alexandre Vuilleumier (Sui) (1); Luke Leong (Sin) (1) lost to Prateek Shriwas (2); Jonas Eirksson (Swe) (2) bt Gurpreet Singh Maras (1); Sayantan Dutta (2) bt Santul Kosmo (Fin) (1); Byomakesh Nayak (1.5) drew with Akash Thakur (1.5); Rahul Sangma (1.5) drew with H.D. Jagdish (1.5); Himanshu Kumar (1) lost to Soumya Ranjan (2); Grame Kafka (Sco) (1) drew with Stefan Macak (Svk) (1); Sriram Sarja (1) drew with Harald Borchgrevink (Nor) (1); Franc Steenkamp (RSA) (1.5) bt Swapnil Hoble (0.5); T.S. Pradeep (0.5) lost to R. Naveen (1.5); Pranjal Phukan (1) bt Sanchit Agarwal (0); Edgar Perriera (Por) (1) bt Ashok Shah (Ken) (0); J.S.S. Phanikanth (0) lost to Wilson Cruz (1).

Girls: Nadezda Kosintseva (Rus) (3.5) drew with Wang Yu (Chn) (3.5); Tian Tian (Chn) (2.5) lost to Koneru Humpy (3.5); Tatiana Kosintseva (Rus) (3.5) bt Natalia Pogonina (Rus) (2.5); Xue Zhao (Chn) (3.5) bt Ana-Cristina Caltescu (Rom) (2.5); Harika Dronavalli (2.5) lost to Ioulia Makka (Gre) (3); Elmira Khasanov (Rus) (3) bt M. Kasturi (2); Sofya Zigangirova (Kaz) (2.5) drew with Tania Sachdev (2.5); Eesha Karavade (2.5) drew with Leonie Helm (Ger) (2.5); Y. Pratibha (2) lost to Sophie Millet (Fra) (3); Polina Churun (Blr) (2) lost to Ekaeerina Oubienykh (Rus) (3); Cindy Tsai (US) (3) bt Dlgado Trujillo (Spa) (2); Ljilja Drijevic (Yug) (2.5) drew with Eva Moser (Aut) (2); Jana Jackova (Cze) (2.5) bt M. Priyadarshini (1.5); Matras Agnieszka (Pol) (2.5) bt Silje Bjerke (Nor) (1.5); Marjana Savic (Yug) (2) drew with C.V. Rajalakshmi (2); P. Priya (2) bt Sarune Lappinskaite (Lit) (1); M. Priyadarshini (1.5) drew with Anuprita Patil (1.5); N. Vinuthna (2) bt Tara Santana (Bra) (1); Nimmy George (1.5) drew with Chandra Hawsa (1.5); C. Delphin (2) bt Jennitha Anto (1); Ketaki Kulkarni (1.5) drew with H. Nilavoli (1.5); Anoori Shah (1.5) bt Margarida Combra (Por) (0.5); J.E. Kavitha (1.5) bt Tana Holusova (Cze) (0.5); Veronica Breen (Swe) (1.5) bt Soumya Swaminathan (0.5); Nabeela Farheen (1.5) bt Liyana Indeevarie (Sri) (0.5); Maygozel Kurbanova (Turk) (1) bye.

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