Date:07/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/07/stories/2008080755822200.htm

Sport - Chess

Harika, Mary in joint second spot

NEW DELHI: Favourite D. Harika slipped to joint second place after a quick draw with second seed Mariya Muzychuk in the fourth round of the girls’ section while the Indian boys had a tough day in the World junior chess championship at Gaziantep, Turkey, on Tuesday.

Joining Harika at 3.5 points was teammate Mary Ann Gomes who easily defeated Poland’s Hanna Leks.

At the Spanish town of Badalona, International Masters S. Kidambi and P. Konguvel joined Grandmaster P. Magesh Chandran at 4.5 points in the four-man leaders’ pack after the fifth round of the Badalona International Open tournament.

The results (involving Indians): World juniors (fourth round): Open: Hou Yifan (Chn, 3.5) bt S. Arun Prasad (2.5); Lin Chen (Chn, 3.5) bt Abhijeet Gupta (2.5); Deep Sengupta (2) lost to Maxim Rodshtein (Isr, 3); Aswin Jayaram (2.5) drew with David Baramidze (Ger, 2.5); G. N. Gopal (2.5) drew with Roeland Pruijssers (Ned, 2.5); Parimarjan Negi (2.5) drew with Pavel Potapov (Rus, 2.5); Jon Ludvig Hammer (Nor, 2.5) drew with Akshayraj Kore (2.5); P. Karthikeyan (2) bt Pavel Vavric (Mda, 1); Vishnu Prasanna (1) lost to Tyler Hughes (USA, 2); Atakan Sirin (Tur, 2) bt Sahaj Grover (1).

Girls: Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr, 3.5) drew with D. Harika (3.5); Hanna Leks (Pol, 2.5) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (3.5); Kruttika Nadig (2.5) lost to Gulmira Dauletova (Kaz, 3.5); Soumya Swaminathan (2) lost to Guliskhan Nakhbayeva (Kaz, 3); Padmini Rout (3) bt Hour Homa Alavi (Iri, 2); R. Preethi (2.5) drew with Zuzana Borosova (Svk, 2.5).

Badalona International (fifth round): Zhigniew Pakleza (Pol, 4) drew P. Magesh Chandran (4.5); P. Konguvel (4.5) bt Jaima Alexander Cuartas (Col, 3.5); Rafal Lubczynski (Pol, 3.5) lost to S. Kidambi (4.5).

Kavala International (seventh round): S. Satyapragyan (4.5) drew with M. Oleg Romanishin (Ukr, 4.5); Borko Lajthajm (Srb, 4.5) bt Prathamesh Mokal (3.5); Saptarshi Roy Choudhury (3.5) drew with Dimitrios Exizoglou (Gre, 3.5); Nodar Davrashvili (Geo, 3) lost to V. Saravanan (4).