The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Harika holds Al-Modiahki

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Wednesday, Jan 31, 2007
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Harika holds Al-Modiahki

NEW DELHI: D. Harika kept alive slim hopes of a maiden Grandmaster norm after drawing with Qatari Grandmaster Mohd Al-Modiahki in the sixth round of the Gibtelecom Masters chess tournament at Gibraltar on Monday.

When the action resumed after a day of rest, Ukraine's Zahar Efimenko stunned top seed Michael Adams to become part of the six-player leader group at five points.

From India's point of view, Harika's 54-move draw with Al-Modiahki, rated 135 points above at 2556, was the biggest result of the day. Playing black, the Commonwealth woman champion forced an equal endgame where the players had a queen and four pawns each.

Though Deep Sengupta lost to the vastly experienced Mikhail Gurevich, R. B.

Ramesh won after two straight losses. Sandipan Chanda received a walkover from German girl Elizabeth Paehtz and moved within half a point of the leaders.

The results (involving Indians): Sixth round: Deep Sengupta (4) lost to Mikhail Gurevich (Tur, 5); Jaan Ehlvest (USA, 4.5) bt S. Vijayalakshmi (3.5); Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger, 3.5) gave walk over to Sandipan Chanda ( 4.5); Mohd Al-Modiahki (Qat, 4) drew with D. Harika (4); R. B. Ramesh (4) bt Dimo Werner (Ger, 3); Jon Gunnarsson (Isl, 3) lost to Nisha Mohota (4); Kevin Spraggett (Can, 3.5) bt Aarthie Ramaswamy (2.5); N. Srinath (2.5) lost to Ismael Teran Alvarez (Esp, 3.5); Tania Sachdev (3.5) bt Joar Pettersen (Nor, 2.5); Vincent Heinis (Fra, 3.5) bt S. Meenakshi (2.5); Katerina Nemcova (Cze, 2.5) drew with Prasanna Rao ( 2.5).

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