Bakre, Humpy crowned junior Asian champions

Bakre, Humpy crowned junior Asian champions
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

Mumbai, September 10: It was progressive scoring that finally broke the deadlock in the boy's section of the Asian junior chess championship and landed the title to India's International Master Tejas Bakre after he was tied with compatriot IM Pendyala Harikrishna atop the points table with eight points at Hotel Centaur here on Sunday.

IWM Koneru Humpy, however, made it clean in the girl's category with half-a-point lead over Chinese sensation Yu Ting. Title victory also earned Humpy the first Women Grandmaster norm. The championship was dominated by Indians who won five of the six medals at stake.

A tie with Harikrishna cost Tejas dear as he lost an opportunity to earn the Grandmaster norm. This was the second Asian title for Bakre having won it earlier at Iran in 1998.

Humpy, playing with black pieces applied the Caro-Kann defence against Y Pratibha but lost early opportunity as the opponent got an isolated pawn on the 13th move. On the 24th move, Pratibha sacrificed a pawn in return for two. She soon got a passed pawn on `f7' but Humpy grabbed it with counter play on the 32nd move to force a win in 52 moves.

Yu Ting made shortwork of JE Kavitha in 23 moves to assure herself of a silver medal.

In the boy's category, Harkrishna scored a quick win over IM Neelotpal Das in 20 moves of Queens Gambit opening after the latter, playing with black pieces, blundered on 13th move.

Tejas Bakre followed up with a brilliant win over Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh in 39 moves of Sicilian defence. Tejas outplayed his opponent with crushing attack.

IM Sunderrajan Kidambi opted for a draw against Mohammed Al Syed of Qatar to claim the bronze medal.

Results (Round XI):

Boy's: Al Sayed Mohammed (7.5) drew with S Kidambi (7.5), P Harikrishna (8) bt Nelotpal das (6), Tejas Bakre (8) bt Enamul Hossain (6), SS Ganguly (7.5) bt Du Shan (6), Filippov Anton (5.5) lost to Ghaem Maghami (7.5), Satyapragyan (7) drew with CJ Arvind (6), Said Rakhimbekov (6.5) bt Mark Paragua (5.5), Vikramaditya Kamble (5.5) drew with Annaberdiev Meilis (6), Valay Parikh (5) drew with John Paul Gomez (5.5), Satyajit M (4.5) lost to Magesh Chandran (5.5), Arjun Tiwari (5.5) bt Syed Hassan (4.5), Mullajumaa Taher (4) drew with Akshya Kore (4.5), PMAB Athukorala (3) drew with Soumya Ranjan Mishra (4.5), Himanshu Kumar (2.5) drew with Mathew Sonter (4.5).

Girl's: Y Pratibha ( 4.5) lost to Koneru Humpy (8.5), Yu Ting (8) bt JE Kavitha (5), Madina Duisenova (3.5) lost to Nisha Mohota (7.5), Pazha Sivakame (4) drew with Elena Levushkina (7), Swati Ghate (7.5) bt Anupama Konara (2), Aarthie Ramaswamy (5.5) lost to Chauthi Ngoc Giao (7), Feroza Haque Chowdhary (0.5) lost to S Meenakshi (7), Beverly Mendoza (4) lost to Tania Sachdev (6.5).

Final standings (top 10):

Boys: 1. Tejas Bakre (Points 8, Progressive Score 51), 2. P Harikrishna (8-50.5), 3. Sunderrajan Kidambi (7.5), 4. Surya Sekhar Ganguly (7.5), 5. Ghaem Maghami, Iran (7.5), 6. Al Sayed Mohammed, Qatar (7.5), 7. S Satyapragyan (7), 8. Said Rakhimbakov, Kazakistan (6.5), 9. CJ Arvind (6), 10. Enamul Hossain, Bangladesh (6).

Girls: 1. Koneru Humpy (8.5), 2. Yu Ting, China (8), 3. Swati Ghate (7.5), 4. Nisha Mohota (7.5), 5. Elena Leivushkina, Uzbekistan (7), 6. S Meenakshi (7), 7. Chauthi Ngoc Giao, Vietnam (7), 8. Tania Sachdev (6.5), 9. Aarthie Ramaswamy (5.5), 10. JE Kavitha (4.5).