The Hindu : Aronian, Zhao claim titles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 21, 2002

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Sport - Chess

Aronian, Zhao claim titles

By Rakesh Rao

L. Aronian of Armenia (left) and Zhao Xue of China who won the Junior World chess championship at Panaji on Friday. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy

PANAJI DEC. 20. Having finished second-best in the previous edition of the World junior chess championship, Levon Aronian and Zhao Xue knew exactly how miserable it feels to fumble at the finish. Once was bad enough and they were determined not to let the title slip away a second time in 15 months.

The Armenian boy and the Chinese girl recalled that draw in their respective final-round matches denied them the honours in Greece last September. But on Friday, at the Cidade de Goa, they did not put a foot wrong and raced away to similarly authoritative victories for that `top-of-the-world' feeling.

From India's point of view, holder Koneru Humpy and Surya Sekhar Ganguly recorded fluent victories but where left with a none-too-happy feeling despite making the medal-bracket.

A dethroned Humpy settled for a silver but looked back on her inability to win from winning positions in one of the key contests. Likewise, Ganguly also chose to talk about the missed chances after he had ensured the bronze. Though, for the record, Ganguly became the second Indian boy to win a medal in the championship after Anand brought home the title in 1987. This was also the first time when a medal from each section had come India's way in this premier event.

Overall, it could have been better for the host had Zhao not delivered a twin-blow. She expectedly defeated Dronavalli Harika and with it, dashed Humpy's hopes of overtaking her. Since Zhao enjoyed a superior tie-break tally, she had to at least match Humpy's result today in order to finish ahead.

Zhao played aggressively and did not let Harika have any drawing chances throughout the contest. She tested Harika with an advanced queenside pawn after allowing the Indian to trade a knight for rook. Zhao enjoyed an overwhelming position with her two bishops running amok in Harika's territory. Despite Harika giving up a rook for a bishop, Zhao's king-rook pawn gradually assumed dangerous proportions and made the decisive difference.

Zhao had an added reason to be pleased today. She got even with Humpy by pushing her to the second spot on superior tie-break tally, just as the Indian had done to her last year. Both players finished with 10.5 points each but Zhao was placed ahead as the cumulative rating of her 13 rivals was superior to that of Humpy's.

A little earlier, Aronian ensured that no calculator was required to arrive at the winner in the boy's section. Like Zhao, he too needed nothing less than a victory to make sure of the title. Aronian defeated Russian Dmitry Jakovenko and stayed out of reach of England's Luke McShane, who finished runner-up after beating Hungary's Ferenc Berkes.

With an almost savage queenside offensive, Aronian ripped the defences of Jakovenko and won far more easily than expected. In fact, when the match ended in the third hour itself, Aronian still had 47 minutes on his clock _ an indication of the assured manner in which he made his moves today.

Among the Indians, P. Hari Krishna and Tania Sachdev won and gate-crashed into the top-10 bracket in their respective sections. In the girls section, Harika, Y. Pratibha and C. Delphin did well to be among the first 14 finishers.

The results:

13th round: (Indians unless stated): Boys: Levon Aronian (Arm) (10) bt Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus) (8); Luke McShane (Eng) (9.5) bt Ferenc Berkes (Hun) (8.5); Artyom Timofeev (Rus) (9) bt Sergey Erenburg (Isr) (8); Surya Sekhar Ganguly (9) bt Miton Kamil (Pol) (7.5); Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol) (7.5) lost to Bu Xianzhi (Chn) (8.5); Ernesto Inarkiev (Rus) (8.5) bt Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Ira) (7.5); David Smerdon (Aus) (7.5) lost to P. Hari Krishna (8.5); Ni Hua (Chn) (8.5) bt Stefan Kristjansson (Ice) (7.5); Vladimir Potkin (Rus) (8.5) bt Sergei Azarov (Blr) (7.5); Viorieanu Bogdan (Rom) (7) lost to Mark Paragua (Phi) (8); Dmitrios Mastrovasilis (Gre) (8) bt S. Kidambi (7); Martaza Darban (Ira) (7) lost to S. Satyapragyan (8); Poobesh Anand (7.5) drew with Roman Bar (Isr) (7.5); Meylis Annaberdiev (Tkm) (8) bt Stefan Bromberger (Ger) (6.5); Jeremic Veljko (Yug) (7) drew with G. Rohit (7); Perez Candelario (Esp) (7) drew with Stephen Glinert (Can) (7); Amon Simutowe (Zam) (7.5) bt Asaukas Henrikas (Lit) (6.5); Deepan Chakkravarthy (7.5) bt Pontus Carlsson (Swe) (6.5); Li Qun (Chn) (7) drew with Neelotpal Das (7); Preetham Sharma (6.5) drew with Rustem Sadykov (Kaz) (6.5); Jirka Jiri (Cze) (7) bt Lim Yee Weng (Mal) (6); Steve Geinert (Bel) (6.5) drew with Yannick Gozzoli (Fra) (6.5); Dmitry Poliakov (Blr) (6.5) drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (6.5); Stefan Macak (Svk) (6.5) drew with Prathamesh Mokal (6.5); Sriram Sarja (6.5) drew with Arghyadip Das (6.5); Vikramaditya Kamble (6.5) drew with P. Phoobalan (6.5); Sandipan Chanda (5.5) lost to David Kjartansson (Ice) (6.5); Alexandre Vuilleumier (Swi) (5.5) lost to Sam Collins (Ire) (6.5); H. D. Jagadish (6) drew with Luke Leong (Sin) (6); Soumya Ranjan Mishra (5.5) lost to Jonas Eriksson (Swe) (6.5); Sayantan Dutta (6.5) bt R. Siddharth (5.5); Rishipal Singh (6.5) bt G. N. Gopal (5.5); Edgar Pereira (Por) (6) drew with Rahul Sangma (6); Harald Borchgrevink (Nor) (6) bt Nikhilesh Kumar (5); Kosmo Santul (Fin) (6) bt Wendali Sprenger (Aut) (5); R. Naveen (6) bt Akshayraj Kore (5); Wilson Cruz (5) lost to T. S. Pradeep (6); Akash Thakur (5.5) bt Graeme Kafka (Sco) (4.5); Pranjal Phukan (5) drew with Byomakesh Nayak (5); Himanshu Kumar (4.5) drew with Athula Russel (Sri) (4.5); Franc Steenkamp (RSA) (4.5) drew with Gurpreet Singh (4.5); J. S. S. Phanikanth (3.5) lost to Pratik Shriwas (5); Swapnil Hoble (5) bt Sanchit Agarwal (3); Arjun Tiwari (5) bt Nehal Shah (Ken) (0).

Top-10 standings: 1. Levon Aronian (Arm) 10 points; 2. Luke McShane (Eng) 9.5; 3-4. Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Artyom Timofeev (Rus) 9 each; 5-10. Bu Xiangzhi (Chn), Ernesto Inarkiev (Rus), P. Hari Krishna, Ferenc Berkes (Hun), Ni Hua (Chn) and Vladimir Potkin (Rus) 8.5 each.

Girls : Koneru Humpy (10.5) bt Sophie Millet (Fra) (7.5); Zhao Xue (Chn) (10.5) bt Dronavalli Harika (7.5); Ekaterina Ubiennykh (Rus) (8.5) bt Wang Yu (Chn) (9); Nadezhda Konsinteva (Rus) (10) bt Moser Eva (Aut) (7); Eesha Karavade (7) lost to Tatiana Konsintseva (Rus) (9.5); Calotescu Cristina (Rom) (7) lost to Natalia Pogonina (Rus) (8); Makka Ioulia (Gre) (7) lost to Tania Sachdev (8); Jana Jackova (Cze) (6.5) lost to C. Delphin (7.5); Tian Tian (Chn) (7.5) bt M. Priyadarshini (6.5); Sofya Zigangirova (Kaz) (7) drew with Chandra Hawsa (7); Tana Holusova (Cze) (7.5) bt H. Nilavoli (6.5); Y. Pratibha (7.5) bt Polina Churun (Blr) (6); C. V. Rajalakshmi (7) bt P. Priya (6); Ljilja Drljevic (Yug) (6) drew with Silje Bjerke (Nor) (6.5); J. E. Kavitha (7) bt Cindy Tsai (US) (6); Elmira Khasanova (Rus) (6) drew with Ketaki Kulkarni (6); Matras Agnieszka (Pol) (6.5) bt Anuprita Patil (5.5); Anoori Shah (5.5) lost to Savic Marijana (Yug) (6.5); Trujillo Delgado (Esp) (5.5) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (6.5); N. Vinuthana (6.5) bt Nimmy George (5); Margarida Coimbra (Por) (5.5) drew with M. Kasturi (5.5); Maygozel Kurbanova (Tkm) (5) drew with M. Rajadarshini (5.5); Jennitha Anto (5) drew with Sarune Lapinskaite (Lit) (5); Veronica Breen (Swe) (5.5) bt Liyana Indeevarie (Sri) (2); Iara Santana (Bra) (4) lost to Nabeela Farheen (5); Leonie Helm (Ger) (5) loss by default.

Top-14 standings: 1-2. Zhao Xue (Chn) and Koneru Humpy 10 10.5 each; 3. Nadezhda Kosintseva (Rus) 10; 4. Tatiana Nadezhda Kosintseva (Rus) 9.5; 5. Wang Yu (Chn) 9; 6. Ekaterina Ubiennykh (Rus) 8.5; 7-8. Natalia Pogonina (Rus) and Tania Sachdev (8 each); 9-14. Tian Tian (Chn), Dronavalli Harika, Y. Pratibha, Sophie Millet (Fra), Tana Holusova (Cze) and C. Delphin 7.5 each.

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