Sport - Chess   

Abhijeet and Harika complete golden sweep

NEW DELHI: Bhilwara-boy Abhijeet Gupta and Guntur-girl D. Harika gave India a fitting Independence Day gift by completing the first-ever golden sweep in the history of World junior chess championship at Gaziantep, Turkey, on Friday.

Abhijeet (10 points) and Parimarjan Negi (9.5) made it an unprecedented 1-2 for India in what is considered among the prestigious titles in the game.

Abhijeet scored a spectacular top-board victory over British contender David Howell in the 13th and final round.

The three boys shared the lead after winning the penultimate rounds and set up an exciting finish. Abhijeet, playing black, won his fifth game on the trot by outplaying Howell in just 32 moves.

Parimarjan drew with German Arik Braun in 44 moves to ensure a medal.

Once the third board game between Azerbaijan’s Eltaj Safarli and Israel’s ended in a draw after 77 moves, Parimarjan became the runner-up.

Among the girls, top seed Harika expectedly claimed the title with tally of 10.5 points. Having made sure of the title with a penultimate-round victory on Thursday evening, Harika took a friendly 12-move draw in the final round to seal the title.

Two-time Asian girls’ champion Mary Ann Gomes tied for the second spot but finished fourth on tie-break score.

While Harika looked too strong for the field that was without Chinese challenge, the open field was far too formidable. Until the last five rounds, the Indians were not in contention. But the way 19th seed Abhijeet won the last five rounds while Parimarjan scored 4.5 points against higher rated players, a totally unexpected Indian 1-2 was made possible.

Abhijeet now joins V. Anand (1987) and P. Hari Krishna (2004) as the Indian winners of the title. Harika emulated her Andhra-mate K. Humpy (2001) as the girls’ champion. Parimarjan is the first Indian silver medallist in the Open section where Surya Shekhar Ganguly claimed a bronze in 2002. Humpy (silver in 2002) and Eesha Karavade (bronze in 2004) are the other Indian medallists in the premier championship.

Meanwhile, a delighted All India Chess Federation (AICF) President N. Srinivasan announced Rs. 1 lakh each for Abhijeet and Harika. Later, when the news of Parimarjan claiming the silver came, the AICF secretary D. V. Sundar was quick to announce Rs. 50,000 for the 15-year-old.

The results (involving Indians):

World junior championship Open (13th round): David Howell (Eng, 9) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (10); Arik Braun (Ger, 9) drew with Parimarjan Negi (9.5); Sergei Zhigalko (8.5) bt Aswin Jayaram (7.5); Sanan Sjugirov (Rus, 8.5) bt P. Karthikeyan (7.5); Roman Nechepurenko (Rus, 7.5) drew with G. N. Gopal (7.5); S. Arun Prasad (7.5) bt Denis Rombaldoni (Ita, 6.5); Akshayraj Kore (7) drew with Tornike Sankidze (Geo, 7); Orkhan Abdulov (Aze, 6.5) lost to Deep Sengupta (7.5); Bahruz Rzayev (Aze, 6.5) bt Vishnu Prasanna (5.5); Sahaj Grover (6.5) bt Gareth Oliver (Aus, 5.5); (12th round): Abhijeet bt Braun; Parimarjan bt Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vie); Gopal drew with Emre Can (Tur); Aswin bt Nonelli Eduardo Pat Iturrizaga (Ven); Karthikeyan bt Markus Ragger (Aut); Wen Yang (Chn) bt Kore; Oleg Yaksin (Rus) drew with Arun; Deep drew with Lin Chen (Chn); Vishnu lost to Pavel Potapov (Rus); Berc Deruni (Tur) lost to Sahaj.

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