Good day for Indians

KOZHIKODE, AUG. 18. Friday proved a good day for the Indians in Athens. In the second round of the World junior chess championship, there were six wins for them to make up for the losses of former World under-18 champion Aarthie Ramaswamy and two-time Asian junior champion Tejas Bakre.

Koneru Humpy, the country's best bet in Greece, S. Meenakshi and P. Mahesh Chandran posted their second straight wins. Humpy, seeded fifth in the girls' section, beat Romania's Cristina Calotescu on the second board, while Meenakshi surprised the eighth seed Zhao Xue of China with black pieces. Aarthie succumbed to the Polish girl Iweta Radziewicz, the seventh seed who is quite a regular at the World juniors, but is still looking for her maiden championship. Her best was a second place in Kozhikode in 1998.

Asian junior champion M. Kasturi put the disappointment of her loss on the opening day with a victory against the unrated Swedish girl Veronica Breen. In the day's biggest upset, the top seed Xu Yuanyuan of China (the new superpower in women's chess) was beaten by Sopiko Khukhashvili of Georgia (from whom the Chinese took over).

Mahesh got the better of Anton Korobov of the Ukraine, seeded 25 slots above, on the ninth board, while M.R. Venkatesh defeated Ore Panagiotopoulos of host Greece and K. Ratnakran, the bronze medallist at the recent Asian junior championship in Teheran, defeated Evgeny Zournatsidis, also of Greece. Bakre went down to Miroslav Zufic of Hungary.

lImportant results (Second round): Boys: Marek Stryjecki (Pol) 1 lost to Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) 2; Dimit Mastrovasilis (Gre) 1 lost to Evgeny Shaposhnikov (Rus) 2; Dimitrij Bunzmann (Ger) 1 lost to Diego Flores (Arg) 2; Artur Neiksans (Lat) 1 lost to Levente Vajda (Rom) 2; Roman Bar (Isr) 1 lost to Emanuel Berg (Swe) 2; Nikola Djukic (Yug) 1 lost to Zviad Izoria (Geo) 2; P. Mahesh Chandran (Ind) 2 bt Anton Korobov (Ukr) 1; Mika Karttunen (Fin) 2 bt Rafal Tomczak (Pol) 1; Miroslav Zufic (Hun) 1.5 bt Tejas Bakre (Ind) 0.5; Athansios Tsanas (Gre) 0 lost to Ni Hua (Chn) 1; M.R. Venkatesh (Ind) 1 bt Ore Panagiotopoulos (Gre) 0; K. Ratnakaran (Ind) 1 bt Evgeni Zournatsidis (Gre) 0.

Girls: Sopiko Khukhashvili (Geo) 2 bt Xu Yuanyuan (Chn) 1; Cristina Calotescu (Rom) 1 lost to Koneru Humpy (Ind) 2; Lilit Mkrtchian 1.5 drew with Inga Charkhalashvili (Geo) 1.5; Aarthie Ramaswamy (Ind) 1 lost to Iweta Radziewicz (Pol) 2; Zhao Xue (Chn) 1 lost to S. Meenakshi (Ind) 2; Darja Kaps (Slo) 1 lost to Jana Jackova (Cze) 2; Maria Sergeeva (Kaz) 2 bt Katarzyn Jurkiewicz (Pol) 1; M. Kasturi (Ind) 1 bt Veronica Breen (Swe) 0.

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