Date:15/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/15/stories/2007101571862100.htm

Sport - Chess

Harika takes over as sole leader

NEW DELHI: D. Harika jumped into sole lead in the girls’ section of the World junior chess championship when she defeated Mongolia’s Bathuyag Mongontuul in the 10th round at Yerevan, Armenia, on Saturday.

Harika’s authoritative 46-move triumph with white pieces took her tally to 8.5 points. Overnight leader Russia’s Vera Nebolsina (8) crashed to her first defeat at the hands of fourth seed Jolanta Zawadzka and slipped to the second spot.

Lone hope

With three rounds remaining, Harika is the only Indian in medal contention. With Eesha Karavade losing her second successive game, Tamil Nadu girl P. Priya (6.5 points) became the second best Indian performer at present after beating Russia’s Tatevik Airapetian.

It proved a bad day for the Indian boys in general. Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi surrendered in 91 moves to second seeded Dutch GM Daniel Stellwagen after G.N. Gopal and Deepan Chakkravarthy had lost.

On the brighter side, Abhijeet Gupta emerged victorious and moved into the top-10 standings.

The results (10th round, involving Indians): Open: Dmitry Andreikin (Rus, 7) bt G. N. Gopal (6); Wesley So (Phi, 6) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (7); Parimarjan Negi (6) lost to Daneil Stellwagen (Ned, 6.5); Maxim Rodshtein (Isr, 6) drew with G. Rohit (6); Davit Jojua (Geo, 6.5) bt Deepan Chakkravarthy (5.5); Jan Priborsky (Cze, 5.5) drew with Aswin Jayaram (5.5); David Gevorkian (Arm, 4.5) bt Arun Karthik (3.5); Gudmundur Kjartansson (Isl, 4) bt Abhishek Das (4).

Girls: D. Harika (8.5) bt Bathuyag Mongontuul (Mgl, 6.5); Elena Tairova (Ukr, 7) bt Eesha Karavade (6); Tatevik Airapetian (Rus, 5.5) lost to P. Priya (6.5); Mary Ann Gomes (5.5) bt Nune Darbinyan (Arm, 5.5); Padmini Rout (6) bt Tatev Abrahamyan (USA, 5); Simona Limontaite (Ltu, 5.5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (5.5).