The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Short, Harika triumph

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Thursday, Nov 30, 2006
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Sport - Chess

Short, Harika triumph

P. K. Ajith Kumar

MUMBAI: In the end, one point separated Nigel Short from 164 players. It was such a fine performance that even the man himself couldn't help saying, "For a 41-year-old it's not bad, is it?" That was his first reaction after retaining the title in the ONGC-LIC Commonwealth chess championship at Eskay Resorts here on Wednesday.

The top seed from England finished his campaign in style too, beating second seed Surya Shekhar Ganguly in the final round as he took his tally to an impressive nine points from 10 games. Third seed Sandipan Chanda, who agreed to a quick draw with M.R. Venkatesh, took the runner-up spot with eight points. D. Harika took the women's title after defeating Wu Shaobin of Singapore; she also benefited from favourite S. Vijayalakshmi's loss to Neelotpal Das and was placed 13th overall after securing seven points.

Important results (10th round, Indians unless specified): Surya Shekhar Ganguly 7 lost to Nigel Short (Eng) 9; M.R. Venkatesh 8 drew with Sandipan Chanda 8; J. Deepan Chakravarthy 7.5 drew with Abhijit Kunte 7.5; S. Vijayalakshmi 6.5 lost to Neelotpal Das 7.5; G.B. Prakash 7 drew with Himanshu Sharma 7; Eesha Karvade 6.5 lost to Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 7; G. Rohit 7 bt Praveen Thipsay 6; Abhijeet Gupta 7 bt Sriram Jha 6; D. Harika 7 bt Wu Shaobin (Sin) 6; Dibyendu Barua 6.5 drew with Tania Sachdev 6.5; Niaz Murshed (Ban) 6 lost to S.P. Sethuraman 7; P. Shyam Nikil 6 lost to Sundararajan Kidambi 7; Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 6.5 drew with Arghyadip Das 6.5; M.R. Lalith Babu 6 lost to Saptarshi Roy 7; Aarthie Ramaswamy 6 lost to G.N. Gopal 7; R.B. Ramesh 6.5 bt Vikramaditya Kamble 6; Tejas Bakre 6 drew with Aswin Jayaram 6; M.S. Thejkumar 6 drew with Akshayraj Koren 6; S. Arun Prasad 6.5 bt Arjun Tiwari 5.5.

The standings: 1. Short 9 pts; 2-3. Chanda and Venkatesh 8; 4-6. Neelotpal, Deepan and Kunte 7.5; 7-17. Kidambi, Ganguly, Abhijeet Gupta, Gopal, Himanshu, Sethuraman, Harika, Ziaur Rahman, Saptarshi Roy, Prakash and Rohit 7.

The medal winners (gold, silver and bronze):

Women: Harika 7 Vijayalakshmi 6.5 and Tania Sachdev 6.5. Under-20: Boys: Deepan 7.5, Gopal 7 and Saptarshi Roy 7. Girls: Eesha 6.5, Soumya Swaminathan 5.5 and Mary Ann Gomes 5.5. Under-18: Boys: Abhijeet Gupta 7, Rohit 7 and Arun Prasad 6.5. Girls: Bhakti Kulkarni 5.5, Kiran Monisha Mohanty 5.5 and M. Rajadarshini 4.5.

Under-16: Boys: Sethuraman 7, Shyam Nikil 6 and Aswin Jayaram 6. Girls: Pon N. Krithika 5.5, Kanuri Tejaswi 4.5 and Ch. Divyashree 4.5.

Under-14: Boys: N. Srinath 6, S. Nitin 6 and Lalith Babu 6. Girls: Padmini Rout 5, P. Lakshmi Sahiti 4.5 and V. Bhavana 4.5.

Under-12: Boys: Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 6, Prasanna Rao 5.5 and Ankit Rajpara 5.5. Girls: Rucha Pujari 4.5, Melissa Greef (SA) 4.5 and J. Sahari 3.5.

Under-10: Boys: Dheeraj Kumar 5, G.V. Sai Krishna 4.5, Shiven Khosla 4.5. Girls: Ch. Sahajashri 3.5, J. Akhila 3.5 and R. Dharanisree 3.

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