Date:29/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/29/stories/2008072960741900.htm

Sport - Chess

Second loss for Humpy

NEW DELHI: Top seed and defending champion K. Humpy suffered her second straight loss in the North Urals Cup chess tournament when French girl Marie Sebag handed out a 52-move defeat in the second round at Krasnoturinsk, Russia, on Sunday.

The reverse with black pieces in Ruy Lopez left Humpy as the only player waiting to open her account after two rounds of the seven-round competition.

In the Canadian Open in Montreal, overnight leader M.R. Venkatesh lost the ninth and final round to Lithuania’s Eduardas Rozentalis as four players shared the title at 6.5 points.

Sharing the top spot with Rozentalis were France’s Matthieu Cornette, Ukraine’s Alexander Moiseenko and Israel’s Victor Mikhalevski.

The results:

North Urals Cup (second round): Marie Sebag (Fra, 1.5) bt K. Humpy (0); Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul, 2) bt Natalia Pogonina (Rus, 0.5); Pia Cramling (Swe, 0.5) lost to Xu Yuhua (Chn, 1.5); Anna Muzychuk (Slo, 0.5) lost to Anna Ushenina (Ukr, 1.5).

Canadian Open (ninth round, involving Indians): M.R. Venkatesh (6) lost to Eduardas Rozentalis (Ltu, 6.5); Abhijit Kunte (6) drew with Andrei Istratescu (Rou, 5.5); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (5) drew with Raja Panwani (Can, 5); K. Ratnakaran (5) drew with Bator Sambuev (Rus, 5); Swati Ghate (4.5) lost to S. Arun Prasad (5.5); Nisha Mohota (5) bt Nelson Castenada (USA, 4); Nicolas Yap (USA, 3.5) lost to Eesha Karavade (4.5); Hughes Masse (Can, 4) bt Kiran Manisha Mohanty (3); Sai Meera (4) bt William G. Doubleday (Can, 3).

Dutch Open (fifth round, involving Indians): Miqchiel de Jong (Ned, 3) lost to Sriram Jha (4); Sandipan Chanda (3.5) bt Patrick Zelbel (Ger, 2.5). Fourth round: Thomas Michalczak (Ger, 2.5) drew with Chanda; Jha bt Vincent Diepeveen (Ned, 2).