Rasht (Iran), May 17: Pentala Harikrishna and Deepan Chakravarthy of India bagged a bronze medal each as the Asian Age Group Chess Championship concluded here today. Harikrishna won the third place in the under-14 boys' section in a tie-break while Deepan emerged a clear third in the under-12 boys' category. India's third entry in the age-group competition, Lairenjam Mahesh, finished sixth in the under-10 category.Top seed M Haddad of Iran won the under-14 boys' title with 6.5 points after his 50-move draw in an irregular King-pawn ending against Al-Tamimi of Qatar in the ninth and last round. Moradi Ehsan of Iran bagged the silver with six points after a quick draw with Radjapov of Uzbekistan on the second board. Harikrishna prevented an Iranian sweep by scoring a 37-move win over Enkh Amagalan of Mongolia in the French defence exchange variation. Ehsan, Harikrishna and Mousavian (Iran), finished with six points each and were 2 to 4 in that order.
Deepan Chakravarthy, who showed a lot of promise andcould have even won the under-12 title had he taken advantage of all the chances in the earlier rounds, scored a neat 26-move win over Sajedi Y of Iran in the Philidor defence. After exchanging Queens early, Deepan, with black pieces, kept the bishop pair and raised a good blockade against the white pieces. On move 20, Sajedi made a dubious knight move and six moves later Deepan trapped one of white's pieces.
A Filipov of Uzbekistan, who struggled against Deepan, totalled a remarkable 8.5 points from nine rounds to earn the gold while S J Alavi of Iran came second with seven points after his quick win over teammate H Tahmassebi. Deepan tallied 6.5 points.
L Mahesh, who had an outside chance to be among the medals, lost out in a Sicilian battle with D Khamrakulov of Uzbekistan in the last round. Mahesh lost his Queen to a knight fork and resigned after 38 moves. Mahesh, with five points, was sixth behind Erdene G of Mongolia (7.5 points), Khamrakulov (7), Omid Nourouzi of Iran (6.5), Pham Thash Tung ofVietnam (6) and Utegaliyev of Kazakhstan (5.5). Unlike in the under-12 section, the tie-breaker was not needed in this category to decide the medal winners.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.