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Chess: Crown for Hari , Petrosian second

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  • Chess: Crown for Hari , Petrosian second

    Calcutta Telegraph, India
    Dec 1 2004

    Crown for Hari
    - Korbut wins girls' U-20 title l Deep in top-10 finish

    Harikrishna has followed in the footsteps of idol Anand, who won the
    title in 1987
    Kochi: Indian Grandmaster P. Harikrishna lifted the world junior
    chess crown with 10 points after the 13th and final round on Tuesday.


    Harikrishna has followed in the footsteps of his idol Viswanathan
    Anand, who won the title in 1987 in Baguio, the Philippines.

    Russia's Ekaterina Korbut, with 10.5 points, won the girls' under-20
    championship. GM Koneru Humpy had won the girls' world junior crown
    in 2002.

    Harikrishna was sharing the leaderboard on the penultimate round with
    Zhao Jun of China with 9.5 points.

    In the last round, however, Harikrishna drew with top seed GM Ferenc
    Berkes of Hungary in a Catalan defence in 50 moves, while on the
    second board, Zhao went down to Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland in a
    closed Sicilian opening in 49 moves.

    Fourth seed GM Tigran Petrosian of Armenia defeated IM Elshan
    Moradiabadi of Iran in a Catalan defence in 37 moves.

    Petrosian took the second spot on better progressive score than Zhao,
    who had to be content with the third spot.

    `I am delighted to win the world junior title. Though I was
    confident, I was a bit tense as I was in a must-win situation,'
    Harikrishna said.

    On the top board, Harikrishna, playing white, captured a pawn on b7
    on the 17th move. Two moves later, he got one more pawn on a7, but
    white was forced to give back one pawn on the 27th move.

    The game then proceeded to an opposite colour bishops ending with
    both sides having lone rooks.

    White's one pawn advantage was not sufficient to give the Indian a
    point since Ferenc, a former under-18 world champion, was defending
    the position with mathematical precision, and the game ended in a
    draw after 50 moves.

    In another game, Petrosian, playing white, gained some control on the
    seventh file after the 20th move, but the Iranian was able to defend
    with the exchange of minor pieces. In the resultant end game with
    equal pawns, both players agreed for a draw in the 37th move.

    Zhao, who posed a threat to Harikrishna by bouncing back to share the
    lead after 12th round, lost to Radoslaw in 49 moves.

    On the 13th move Radoslaw, playing black, gave an exchange for a pawn
    and was able to hold the white position in an underdeveloped
    situation which gained black two more pawns by the 24th move.

    Playing an exchange down with three pawns, black's bishop proved
    stronger than the white rook. Unable to prevent promotion on the `a'
    and `b' files, white resigned on the 49th move.

    Humpy, the lone girl in the junior boys' category, defeated Artem
    Iijin of Russia in a Kings Indian attack after 30 moves.

    Besides Harikrishna, Deep Sengupta and Koneru Humpy, finished in the
    top ten.

    In the girls' championship, Korbut sacrificed a pawn on the 11th move
    to gain some attack on the rival king. But after a couple of moves,
    Alina Motoc, playing white, was able to trade the queens. In the
    middle game black gained one more pawn. White tried a mating by the
    20th, but black defended it with a counter attack that bore fruit on
    the 37th move.

    On the top board, WGM Elisabeth Paehtz, who was jointly leading with
    Korbut after the 12th round, was shocked by India's Krutika Nadig in
    an English opening in 70 moves, while Eesha Karavade defeated Zhang
    Jilin of China in a Ruy Lopez opening in 64 moves.

    Paehtz and Karavade finished with 9.5 points each, but the former,
    with a superior progressive score, took second place. Karavade,
    Nadig, N. Vinuthna and P. Sivasankari did well to finish inside the
    top ten.
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