Georgia claims four golds

By Manuel Aaron

OROPESA, NOV 2. India finally had to be satisfied with a lone silver medal. Dronavalli Harika finished clear second in the World under-12 girls category when the last round of the World Youth Chess festival concluded here this afternoon.

As expected Shen Yang took the gold by drawing her last round game. But after Yang Shen drew her game there was little for Harika to achieve and she drew the game. Saheli Nath was defeated. But she could have tried for the bronze which was a real possibility. But apparently she was too upset with her penultimate round defeat and gave up rather easily to Shuyu Ding of China.

For Harika, this was not exactly a big disappointment. Last year she had won the silver medal in the World under-10 Girls category. She has now done the same and is happy about it because at one stage it looked as though she would have to return empty handed.

Harika had home food cooked by her mother who has accompanied her here like last year. Though she could have her meals at the organisers restaurant, she chose to eat in the apartment. Harika's coach Mr Raju is also here with her.

Of the ten medals at stake Georgia grabbed four, Hungary two, China two, Russia one and Ukraine one. These countries have also won other lesser medals in this festival. The lone silver for India is a setback.

But most of the Indians finished with decent scores.

All of the 27 players except three easily scored more than 50% in this festival. Most of the Indians leave by bus at midnight from here for Barcelona.

The list of the new World champions and Indian scores in each section:

Under-10 girls: 1 Zhongyi Tan (Chn) 10; Dhyani Dave (Ind) 7.5; I. Ramya Krishna (Ind) 7; Akanshka Narain (Ind) 2.5.

Boys under-10: Tamas Fodor (Hun) 8.5; Sankalp Modwal (Ind) 6.5; Gobin Luwang (Ind) 6.5; Y. Sandeep (Ind) 6; P. P. Prachura (Ind) 6.

Girls under-12: 1 Yang Shen (Chn) 9; 2 Harika (Ind) 8; Saheli Nath (Ind) 7. Anoori Shah (Ind) 6; M. Rajadarshini (Ind) 6.

Boys under-12: Sergei Karyakin (Ukr) 8.5, Vijay Keerthi (Ind) 7.5; G. Rohit (Ind) 7.5. Abhijit Gupta (Ind) 7; M. Suraj (Ind) 6.5; R. Srinivasan (Ind) 6; Abhishek Narain (Ind) 4.5.

Girls under-14: 1 Salome Melia (Geo) 9.5; Eesha Karavade (Ind) 7; P. Priya (Ind) 6.5.

Boys under-14: 1 Viktor Erdos (Hun) 9; Deep Sengupta (Ind) 7; Sunil Rangarajan (Ind) 7; Samarth Modwal (Ind) 3.

Girls under-16: 1 Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 9; Anuradha Beniwal (Ind) 6.

Boys under-16: 1 Konstantin Shanava (Geo) 8.5; J. Deepan Chakravarthy (Ind) 6; S. Poobesh Anand (Ind) 6.

Girls under-18: 1 Sopio Gvetadze (Geo) 10; J. E. Kavitha (Ind) 6.

Boys under-18: 1 Dmitri Iakovenko (Rus) 9; Himanshu Sharma (Ind) 6.

Devastating defeat

India had a big set-back when Saheli Nath suffered a devastating defeat in the penultimate round. Trying to take the Hungarian girl Maria Ignacz out of theory, Saheli Nath played 1 b3 on the first move. On the ninth turn she moved her king's knight a second time giving up control over the central squares. Ignacz immediately played 11...e6-e5 getting the classical position with two pawns abreast in the centre. This dismayed Saheli who had to bring her knight back to h3. By the 17th turn black was better. On the 23rd move, clearly outplayed, Saheli blundered away a bishop and two moves later she resigned.

The results (Tenth round):

Under-10 girls: Zhongyi Tan (Chn) 9 drew with Dan Zhang (Chn) 7. Melekhina (USA) 8 bt Guramishvili (Geo) 6.

Under-10 boys: Lichman (Ukr) 7 lost to Quang Liem Le (Vie) 8. Tamas Fodor (Hun) 8 bt Kruglyakov (Ukr) 7. Liren Ding (Chn) 6.5 lost to Recuerro Guerra (Esp) 8. Narmontas (Ltu) 7.5 bt Cordova Daza (Per) 6.5.

Under-12 girls: Yang Shen (Chn) 8.5 bt Shuyu Ding (Chn) 7. Saheli Nath (Ind) 7 lost to Ignacz (Hun) 7.5. Bokuchava (Geo) 6.5 lost to Harika (Ind) 7.5.

Under-12 boys: Susilodinata (Indo) 8 bt Andreikine (Rus) 7.5. Vachier Lagrave (Fra) 7.5 drew with Karyakin (Ukr) 7.5. Krivoborodov (Rus) 7.5 bt Szabo (Hun) 7.

Under-14 girls: Mongontuul (Mon) 8 lost to Arutyuonova (Ukr) 8. Rozic (Slo) 6.5 lost to Melia (Geo) 8.5.

Under-14 boys: Gonda (Hun) 7.5 drew with Erdos (Hun) 8.5. Tomashevsky (Rus) 7 drew with Wojtaszek (Pol) 7.5. Nakamura (USA) 8 bt Predojevic (Yug) 6.5.

Under-16 girls: Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 8.5 drew with Qian Huang (Chn) 7. Sopiko Khukashvili (Geo) 7.5 bt Vozovik (Ukr) 8.

Under-16 boys: Alexeev (Rus) 8 bt Korobov (Ukr) 7. Heberla (Pol) 7 lost to Shanava (Geo) 7.5.

Under-18 girls: Gvetadze (Geo) 9.5 bt Khusnutdinova (Rus) 6. Calotescu (Rom) 8 lost to Milliet (Fra) 6.

Under-18 boys: Izoria (Geo) 8 bt Timofeev (Rus) 7.5. Iakovenko (Rus) 8 bt Werle (Ned) 7. Erenberg (Isr) 7.5 bt Mastrovasilis (Gre) 6.5.

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