The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Padmini routs Harika

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Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
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Padmini routs Harika

NEW DELHI: Padmini Rout scored a stunning victory over top-seeded compatriot D. Harika in the girls’ second round of the World junior chess championship at Yerevan, Armenia, on Thursday.

Padmini, along with Eesha Karavade, Mary Ann Gomes and Soumya Swaminathan, was among the 10 leaders with two points each.

In the boys’ section, G.N. Gopal, Parimarjan Negi and G. Rohit won to be part of the 12-player leaders’ group.

In the Sicilian game, Padmini seized control of the central squares and sacrificed a bishop to expose Harika’s castled king.

She then mounted a decisive attack with the help of rook and queen. With Harika’s queen and rook in no position to rescue the troubled king, Padmini moved within two moves of a checkmate when the game ended after 33 moves.

Eesha had no problem in dismissing Czech girl Sona Pertlova in 30 moves.

Gupta loses

On a day when National junior champion Abhijeet Gupta lost to fifth-seeded Briton Gawain Jones, Gopal battled for 51 moves to down Iran’s Amin Nasri.

For the second successive day, Parimarjan Negi was the quickest Indian to post a victory after a 31-move encounter with Russia’s Viacheslav Kulakov. Rohit spent 41 moves to beat his unrated rival from Lebanon, Mahoud El Chamieh.

The results: Second round (involving Indians): Open: Abhijeet Gupta (1) lost to C.B. Gawain Jones (Eng, 2); Amin Nasri (Iri, 1) lost to G.N. Gopal (2); Viacheslav Kulakov (Rus, 1) lost to Parimarjan Negi (2); Mahoud El Chamieh (Leb, 1) lost to G. Rohit (2); Aswin Jayaram (1.5) bt Ivan Galic (Cro, 0.5); Dagur Arngrimsson (Isl, 0) lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy (1); Zurab Javakhadze (Geo, 0) lost to R. Arun Karthik (1); Abhishek Das (1) bt Martin Zvarik (Svk, 0).

Girls: Padmini Rout (2) bt D. Harika (1); Sona Perlova (Cze, 1) lost to Eesha Karavade (2); Mary Ann Gomes (2) bt P. Priya (1); Madona Bokuchava (Geo, 1) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (2).

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