The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Humpy on song

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Sunday, Dec 03, 2006
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Sport - Chess

Humpy on song

Manuel Aaron

Doha: Koneru Humpy is going great guns in the women's section of the Asian Rapid individual championship. She won all her three games on Saturday. Six more rounds remain in this championship. But in the men's section, top seed Sasikiran could only draw his games while Harikrishna has one win and two draws.

However, the men's section is very fiercely contested and there are seven players on 2.5 points each. Harikrishna is half-a-point behind them and Sasikiran is one point adrift. Sasikiran was upset with the way the gala opening ceremony of the Asian Games on Friday night sapped the players' energy.

While the team left the Athletes' Village at four in the evening, it was able to return only 30 minutes past midnight. And all those who went to the opening ceremony in their ceremonial dress were soaked to the skin in the rain and were waiting for buses to bring them back.

Humpy is playing confidently. She beat Akter Samima (Ban), WGM Nguyen Thi Than An of Viet Nam and WGM Olga Sabirova of Uzbekistan. She was never in trouble in any of the games.

0There are 21 players in the women's section and 41 in the men.

Harikrishna beat Mongolia's Tsegmed Bachuluun and then drew with Grandmasters Elsham Moradiabadi of Iran and Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh. Sasikiran had the misfortune to draw with much lesser rated players like IM Imad Hakki of Syria, IM Abdulla Hasan of UAE and Shinya Kojima of Japan.

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