The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Kramnik, Leko enter semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 29, 2004

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Sport - Chess

Kramnik, Leko enter semifinals

DORTMUND, JULY 28. Vladimir Kramnik suffered a loss at the hands of 14-year-old Sergey Karjakin in the 10-minute rapid tie-break phase but that did not prevent him from topping Group `B' and qualifying for the semifinals of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting here on Tuesday.

Kramnik topped the all-play-all rapid standing with four points from six matches. He faces Peter Svidler in the semifinal. Peter Leko finished half a point behind Kramnik and earned the right to challenge Viswanathan Anand for a place in the final.

In the first game of the two-round semifinal on Thursday, Leko and Kramnik will play with white pieces.

Quick draw

Viswanathan Anand and Peter Svidler played out a quick draw in their final league match in Group `A'. Anand and Svidler played it safe in just 19 moves of Closed Ruy Lopez. In the other match, Arkadij Naiditsch delighted the home crowd by defeating Sergei Rublevsky in 39 moves of their Scotch game.

Negi's feat

Eleven-year-old Parimarjan Negi won a `battle of generations' against 61-year-old Swiss Grandmaster Ivan Nemet in the eighth round of the Biel Masters to become the youngest Indian ever to score over a Grandmaster. Negi is 11 years and five months old.

Surya Shekar Ganguly, the current National champion, held the record of 11 years and 11 months after beating Russian GM Gregory Serper in the Goodricke International in Kolkata.

The Delhi-based prodigy, supported by ONGC and Indian Airlines, took his tally to five points to be tied for 18 to 28 places in a field of 112 players. France's Christian Bauer, Israel's Boris Avrukh and Russia's Andrey Shariyazdanov shared the lead with 6.5 points.

Former National junior champion IM P. Magesh Chandran (5.5) provided another surprise, stunning Russian GM Nikhi Rashkovsky.

In an all-India affair, former National champion and GM-norm holder P. Konguvel (4) defeated R. R. Vasudevan (3.5).

Alexander Morozevich punished an over-ambitious K. Sasikiran by trapping his queen during their Ruy Lopez game and won in 35 moves to regain the lead with six points.

The results:

Group `B': Tie-break: Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) lost to Viorel Bologan (Mol); Peter Leko (Hun) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus); Karjakin lost to Leko; Bologan lost to Kramnik; Leko drew with Bologan; Kramnik bt Karjakin; Bologan drew with Karjakin; Kramnik drew with Leko; Bologan drew with Leko; Karjakin bt Kramnik; Kramnik bt Bologan; Leko drew with Karjakin.

Standings: Kramnik (4), Leko (3.5), Bologan (2.5) and Karjakin (2).

Czech Open at Pardubice (results involving Indians): Lukas Cernousek drew with Abhijit Kunte (3), Boris Furman drew with S. Kidambi (3), Lenka Ptacnikova drew with Harika (2.5), Samo Stajner (2) lost to Tejas Bakre (2.5) S. Meenakshi (3) bt Andreas Peschel, Neelotpal Das (3) bt Martin Kraemer, R. B. Ramesh (2.5) bt John Rendboe, Eesha Karavade (2) drew with Martin Skliba, Nisha Mohota (2) bt Elia Mariano, Tania (1.5) drew with Alexander Koukolik.

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