The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Harika realises a dream

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 14, 2004

Sport

Sport - Chess

Harika realises a dream

By Manuel Aaron

India's Dronavalli Harika, who won the World girls' under-14 title on Saturday.

HERAKLIO (GREECE), NOV. 13. The World Youth Chess Festival concluded today with Woman Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika realising her dream of winning a gold medal in the festival. She won the World under-14 girls' chess championship today by quickly drawing with her Georgian opponent Sopiko Guramishvili.

In the boys' under-12 event, Parimarjan Negi of Delhi won the bronze for India.

Of the 10 gold medals on offer, three went to Poland, two each to China and Georgia and one each to India, Israel and Russia.

The last time that India won gold medals in the World Youth Festival was in Oropesa, Spain 2000 when both Koneru Humpy and Deep Sengupta won gold. Last year in Halkidiky, Greece, India got a solitary silver through Sanka Ravi Teja in the boys' under-10.

In the 10th round Harika had a hard fought victory over Irina Gevorgyan of Uzbekistan. Though Harika had the white pieces she was not comfortable. They reached a rook ending with two pawns each. "I knew the position was drawn and I thought that my dream of a gold medal was gone. But I also knew that my opponent was weak in the endgame," said Harika. The Uzbek made a couple of simple mistakes in the ending and Harika won on the 90th move.

After this victory she was half a point ahead of Ana Muzychuk of Slovenia and Elena Tairova of Russia. All that she needed to make sure of her first gold medal was to draw her last round game. This game ended strangely. Her Georgian opponent Sopiko Guramishvili played 1 d4 and Harika replied with Nf6. The Georgian played 2 c4 and offered a draw!

In the penultimate round of the under-16 girls' section, Mary-Ann Gomes sprung a surprise beating one of the two leaders, Purtseladze.

As expected N. Vinuthna and M. Rajadarshini had got nine-game Woman International Master norms yesterday, according to the Chief Arbiter of the Ladies' sections, Sotirios Logothetis. Both girls lost their 10th round games and won in the last round. The arbiter checked the records and has now upgraded their norms to 11-game Woman International Master norms.

When the case of Arun Prasad's norm was checked on the computer after the ninth round it was found that he was half a point short. If he had won the 10th round, he would have made a 10-game norm. But he drew his 10th and lost in the final round.

In the boys' under-14, Dasari Sai Srinivas raised Indian hopes of winning a medal by winning his penultimate round game and slipping into second place behind the joint leaders.

The category-wise scores of World champions and Indian players: Girls' under-10: WFM Mary Arabitze (Geo) 11; J. Mohana Priya, Gutta Sirisha 7; Tejeswini Reddy 6.5. 84 players. Under-12: 1. Klaudia Kulon (Pol) 9.5; 8. G. Madanasri 7.5; 12 P. Lakshmi Sahithi 7; 29 Devangi Patankar 6. 84 players. Under-14: 1. D.Harika 9; 2. Anna Muzychuk 9; 9 K. Lakshmi Praneetha 7.5; 22. Anjanaa Sowjanyaa 6.5; 38. Kajri Choksi 6 93 players. Under-16: 1. Bela Khotenashvili (Geo) 9.5; 5. Mary-Ann Gomes 8. 81 players. Under-18: WIM Jolanta Zawadzka (Pol) 8; 11. N. Vinuthna 7; 24.M. Rajadarshini 6. 68 players.

Boys' Under-10: 1.Yu Yangyi (China) 9; 6. N. Srinath 8; 14. Prasanna Rao 7.5, 46-47 G. Madhukiran and K. Sanjoy Singh 6. 104 players. Under-12: 1. Zhao Nan (China) 9.5; 3. Parimarjan Negi 9; 26-27. Y. Sandeep and S. Ravi Teja 6.5 each. 122 players. Under-14: IM Ildar Kairullin (Rus) 8.5; 5. D. Sai Srinivas 8; 79. Sankalp Modwal 5; 82. Sanchit Chauhan 5. 123 players. Under-16: Maxim Rodshtein (Isr) 8.5; 23-24. S. Arun Prasad, Deep Sengupta 6.5; 29 G. Rohit 6.5. 107 players. Under-18: 1. IM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol) 9; 44. K. Nikhilesh Kumar 5.5. 86 players.

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