The Hindu : Sport / Chess : The young achievers — Harika, Abhijeet and Negi

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The young achievers — Harika, Abhijeet and Negi —return home

Rakesh Rao

— Photo: Rakesh Rao

WELCOME BACK: World junior chess champion Abhijeet Gupta (extreme left), coach and International Master Anup Deshmukh, World junior girls champion D. Harika and World junior runner-up Parimarjan Negi on their arrival in New Delhi on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: It was a fascinating tale of contrasting triumphs for the Indians in the World junior chess championship that truly brought out the never-say-die spirit of the new generation of homebred champions.

If soon-to-be Arjuna Awardee D. Harika played to her reputation of being an overwhelming favourite for the girls’ crown, Abhijeet Gupta and Parimarjan Negi, seeded 19th and 26th, made a mockery of their projected playing strengths to run away with the gold and silver medals in the open section.

First for India

As a result, India became the first nation in World junior championship to capture titles in both sections since the introduction of the girls’ competition in 1983. Going by the field that was without any Chinese challenger, Harika’s passage to the title looked predictable.

Ironically, Harika’s only serious hurdle was self-doubt that had crept in when she dramatically lost the last three rounds after holding the lead in the previous edition of the championship at Yerevan.

“Yes, that was indeed very heartbreaking,” admitted the 17-year-old recalling last year’s finish. “Those defeats pushed me to the fifth spot and it took a long time for me to recover. This time, I was determined not to let it slip. I knew with my experience, I should win but I did not take want to take any chances.”

On the second day, when two rounds were scheduled, each round for Harika lasted five hours and left her exhausted. But she gained from the fact that she eventually won these marathon games.

Coach and International Master Anup Deshmukh who kept the players motivated throughout and gained the respect of the young Grandmasters, however, rued the fact that Mary Ann Gomes did not win the bronze.

“After Mary won the last round, Soumya Swaminathan should have safely drawn her game against Turkey’s Kubra Ozturk instead of losing in search of a non-existent win. A draw in that game would have given Mary the bronze that eventually went to the Turkish girl.

Interesting observation

Anup, a former member of the country’s Olympiad team, hailed the “single-minded focus” of Harika and made an interesting observation about Abhijeet and Parimarjan.

“Since the two had poor tiebreak scores, they had no choice but to play for a win, round after round. This brought out the character associated with true champions. Abhijeet and Parimarjan were rightly rewarded for their positive attitude during their dream comeback,” he said.

“I still don’t believe I’ve won,” confessed Abhijeet on arrival here in the wee hours of Sunday. He won the last five rounds but his destruction of joint-leader and 14th seeded Briton David Howell in the final round was truly the icing on the cake. In fact, Howell was the only higher-rated player that Abhijeet faced during his campaign but truly creditable was the manner in which he put the finishing touches with black pieces.

“Our game followed one of P. Hari Krishna’s games that Howell did not seem to know. So he took a lot more time to find the right continuation. Once I gained the initiative, Howell’s position deteriorated with every passing move,” said the champion.

Parimarjan, on the other hand, faced the strongest opposition among all the Indians. Of his 13 opponents, seven were higher rated than Parimarjan and the 15-year-old scored commendable victories over the eighth, sixth and ninth seeds in succession to share the lead after the penultimate round.

“I think the victory over sixth-seeded (Chinese) Li Chao was the most difficult for me. Though a silver medal was completely unexpected, especially after the way I struggled in the first half of event, I think the draw in the final round (against Germany’s Arik Braun) was also very crucial,” pointed out Parimarjan who picked up 23 points for a projected rating of around 2590 on October 1 this year.

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