The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Tania, Harika and Negi suffer defeats

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 16, 2005

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Sport - Chess

Tania, Harika and Negi suffer defeats

NEW DELHI: It turned to be a day of setbacks for the Indian front-runners with Tania Sachdev, D. Harika and Parimarjan Negi suffering their first defeats following the sixth round of the World junior chess championship in Istanbul on Monday.

Even as the overnight leaders Azerbaijan's Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and China's Gu Xiaobing continued to head their respective sections, Deep Sengupta, G. Rohit and Akshat Khamparia also crashed to defeats, while the consolation for the Indian camp came from victories by S. Poobesh Anand, G.N. Gopal and N. Raghavi.

Most surprising were the defeats, with white, for Tania and Harika. In her Dutch Defence game, Tania pressed early for the initiative but her Polish rival Beata Kadziolka defended well and slowly wrested the advantage to win. Harika fought for 76 moves against Azerbaijan's Turkan Mamdjarova who proved superior in a rook-and-pawn ending.

Twelve-year-old Negi, the pick of the Indians so far, tried Grunfeld Defence against Georgian Tornike Sanikidze and paid heavily for playing a dubious knight move on the queenside. He came under time-pressure and lost a minor piece before resigning in 51 moves. Negi now plays Russia's Vasily Papin, the Khamparia's conqueror.

The results (sixth round, Indians unless stated):

Boys: Erwin L'ami (Ned, 4) lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 5.5); Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol, 4.5) drew with Jan Smeets Jan (Ned, 4.5); Evgeny Romanov (Rus, 4.5) drew with Alexander Kharitonov (Rus, 4.5); Evgeny Alekseev (Rus, 4.5) bt Igor Kurnosov (Rus, 3.5); Vugar Gashimov (Aze, 4.5) bt Wei Chenpeng (Chn, 3.5).

Other results involving Indians: Tomi Nyback (Fin, 4) bt Deep Sengupta (3); Tornike Sanikidze (Geo, 4) bt Parimarjan Negi (3); Andrey Kvon (Uzb, 3.5) bt G. Rohit (2.5); Oliver Kurmann (Sui, 2.5) lost to S. Poobesh Anand (3.5); Vasily Papin (Rus, 3) bt Akshat Khamparia (2); Nurdin Samakov (Kgz, 2) lost to G.N. Gopal (3).

Girls: Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger, 4.5) drew with Gu Xiaobing (Chn, 5.5); Tania Sachdev (4) lost to Beata Kadziolka (Pol, 5); D. Harika (3.5) lost to Turkan Mamedjarova (Aze, 5); Alina Motoc (Rom, 3.5) lost to Nana Dzagnidze (Geo, 4.5); Anna Ushenina (Ukr, 4.5) bt Liu Pei (Chn, 3.5).

Other results involving Indians: Eesha Karavade (3.5) drew with Kruttika Nadig (3.5); Karolina Ortiz Nadya (Col, 2) lost to N. Raghavi (3).

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