The Hindu : Ganguly in joint lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

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Sport - Chess

Ganguly in joint lead

By Our Chess Correspondent

Chennai June 25 Fifth seed Surya Sekhar Ganguly recovered from a fourth round defeat to win against Rustem Sadykov of Kazakhstan in the fifth round and share the lead after five rounds in the World junior chess championship at Nakhichevan in Azerbaijan on Wednesday.

Drawn results in the top boards in round five came to Ganguly's rescue as he caught up with the leaders scoring a win to reach four points. Ganguly shared the lead with four others.

Indian players who are more used to playing morning sessions excelled in round five winning five games, losing one and drawing one.

The good news is that Pentyala Harikrishna has closed in on the leaders with 3.5 points. The only game where an Indian lost was when Abhijeet Gupta lost to a fellow Indian, National sub-junior champion S. Arun Prasad. Eight rounds remain to be played in the boys' section.

Earlier in the fourth round Surya Sekhar Ganguly had only himself to blame for the defeat he suffered against Kadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan when he lost from what looked like an unassailable position to lose his sole lead.

In round four, the Indians boys failed winning just two and losing four games with one game ending in a draw. The Indian girls who played round three alongside did better winning two, drawing two and losing one game. Both Ganguly in boys and Harika in girls section lost their place in the lead.

Ganguly's conqueror Guseinov leads the boys section along with Leonid Kritz of Germany and Marcin Dziuba of Poland on 3.5 points from four games. Nine rounds remain to be played in this 50-player section. Ganguly is tied for the fourth place now with three points.

In the 28-player girls section, top seed Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia and Cristina Calotescu of Romania shared the lead with their third successive victory. Eight rounds remain to be played in this section.

Dronavalli Harika (2.5/3) who also had an all-win score until round two figured in a third round fully fought drawn encounter against teammate Tania Sachdev (2/3). Tania sacrificed a knight and got a perpetual check with her queen to save the day. Only Harika and Tania Sachdev are undefeated among the twelve Indians in the two sections.

Ganguly swung into a favourable rook ending with the black pieces against Guseinov. Unable to use an extra pawn, then missing a repetition of moves he lost his way allowing white to use the back rank and win in 63 moves.

The trio of Ganguly, Mahesh Chandran and Abhijeet Gupta who had started off well tasted their first defeat of the tournament in a single round. Victory and defeat had been see-sawing on Deepan Chakravarthy (2/4) in perfection and his last result was a defeat. However, Harikrishna and Arun Prasad (in boys) and Saheli Nath (in girls) recovered with victories.

The results: Boys: Fifth round (boys): Marcin Dziuba (Pol) 4 drew Kadir Guseinov (Aze) 4, Vugar Gashimov (Aze) 3.5 drew Leonid Kritz (Ger) 4, Zviad Izoria (Geo) 3.5 drew Dimitrios Mastrovasilis (Gre) 3.5, Surya Sekhar Ganguly 4 bt. Rustem Sadykov (Kaz) 3, Jiri Jirka (Cze) 2.5 lost to P.Harikrishna 3.5, P.Mahesh Chandran 3.5 bt. Craig Hanley (Eng) 2.5, J.Deepan Chakravarthy 3 bt. Sarkhan Gashimov 2, Abhijeet Gupta 2 lost to S.Arun Prasad 3, Nidjat Agaev (Aze) 2 drew Gogineni Rohit 2.

Fourth round: Kadir Guseinov (Aze) 3.5 bt Surya Sekhar Ganguly 3, Rustem Sadykov (Kaz) 3 drew Alexander Zubov (Ukr) 3, Leonid Kritz (Ger) 3.5 bt P.Mahesh Chandran 2.5, Vugar Gashimov (Aze) 3 bt J.Deepan Chakravarthy 2, Sergei Azarov (Blr) 3 bt Abhijeet Gupta 2, P.Harikrishna 2.5 bt Andrei Murariu (Rom) 1.5, Gogineni Rohit 1.5 drew Linus Olsson (Swe) 1, S.Arun Prasad 2 bt Frans-Willem Vermaak (RSA) 1.

Girls: (Third round): Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 3 bt Zeinab Mamedjarova (Aze) 2, Cristina Calotescu (Rom) 3 bt Maria Sergeeva (Kaz) 2, Dronavalli Harika 2.5 drew Tania Sachdev 2, Eesha Karavade 2 bt Zehra Topel (Tur) 1, Anne-Marie Charbonneau (Can) 1.5 bt R.Mahima 0.5, Saheli Nath 1.5 bt Nargiz Umudova (Aze) 0.5.

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