Date:17/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/17/stories/2007101756022100.htm

Sport - Chess

Indians fail to win a medal

NEW DELHI: D. Harika’s third straight loss put her out of the medal bracket as the World junior chess championship concluded at Yerevan, Armenia, on Tuesday.

Harika, leader after 10 rounds with 8.5 points, failed to add to the tally and eventually settled for the fifth spot. Russia’s Vera Nebolina won with 10 points, followed by Poland’s Jolanta Zawadzka and Georgia’s Salome Melia (9.5 each).

In the open section, 18th seed Parimarjan Negi took the eighth spot with 8.5 points after being tied for the fifth spot. Egypt’s Ahmed Adly (10), Russia’s Ivan Popov (9.5) and China’s Wang Hao (9) made it to the podium.

The results (involving Indians):

Open: 13th round: Evgeny Romonav (Rus, 8) lost to Parimarjan Negi (8.5); Gawain Jones (Eng, 8.5) bt Aswin Jayaram (7.5); Abhijeet Gupta (8) drew with Daan Brandenburg (Ned, 7.5); Yuri Yovk (Ukr, 7.5) bt G. Rohit (7); G.N. Gopal (7.5) bt Levan Bregadze (Arm, 6.5); Marcos Llaneza (Esp, 6.5) lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy (7.5); Emilis Pileckis (Ltu, 6) drew with Arun Karthik (6); Stefan Mijovic (Mne, 5.5) drew with Abhishek Das (5.5).

12th round: Maxim Rodshtein (Isr) drew with Abhijeet; Parimarjan drew with Jones Gawain (Eng); Rohit lost to Evgeny Romanov (Rus); Deepan lost to Baseem Amin (Egy); Aswin bt Gopal; Arun bt Maxat Alaguzov (Kaz); Pablo Garcia (Chi) drew with Abhishek.

Indians’ standings: 8. Parimarjan, 13. Abhijeet, 18. Gopal, 21. Aswin, 22. Deepan, 30. Rohit, 56. Arun, 63. Abhishek.

Girls: 13th round: D. Harika (8.5) lost to Salome Melia (Geo, 8.5); Bathuyag Mongontuul (Mgl, 8.5) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (8.5); P. Priya (8) drew with Sabrina Vega (Esp, 8); Eesha Karavade (8) bt Mary Ann Gomes (7); Katrine Tjolsen (Nor, 6.5) drew with Padmini Rout (6.5).

12th round: Elena Tairova (Rus) bt D. Harika; P. Priya lost to Vera Nebolsina (Rus); Gulmira Dauletova (Kaz) bt Eesha; Soumya bt Anahit Kharatyan (Arm); Mary bt Katrine Tjolsen (Nor); Padmini lost to Kulon Klaudia (Pol).

Indians’ standings: 5. Harika, 8. Soumya, 9. Eesha, 13. Priya, 22. Mary, 28. Padmini.