The Hindu : Poobesh moves to joint second spot

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Poobesh moves to joint second spot

By Rakesh Rao

Poobesh Anand watches GM Ernesto Inarkiev of Russia make a move in the 10th round of Jr. World chess championship at Panaji on Tuesday. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy

PANAJI DEC. 17. Poobesh Anand may be well short of matching wits with some of his more illustrious teammates in the on-going World Junior chess championship. Still, day after day, Poobesh is proving an added source of joy for those waiting for a possible Indian triumph.

Exceeding all expectations, Poobesh cracked sixth-seeded Russian Grandmaster Ernesto Inarkiev and moved to the joint-second place behind Luke McShane after a somewhat sedate 10th round action at the Cidade de Goa here on Tuesday.

For the record, McShane regained the lead following a resounding victory over Russian third seed Dmitry Jakovenko. McShane, who had a `perfect' score after the fourth round and led for two rounds, now has 7.5 points. He is trailed by seven players, including P. Hari Krishna, Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Poobesh.

Among the girls, China's Zhao Xue remained half-point ahead of the field despite being held by teammate Tian Tian. Koneru Humpy had raised visions of catching up with the leader after attaining a promising position against Romanian Calotescu Cristina. But once Humpy lost an advanced pawn on the queen's side and a series of exchanges involving queens and rooks followed, a draw was inevitable.

As a result, Zhao retained her lead with eight points, followed by Humpy and Nadezhda Kosinteva. The fourth-seeded Russian got past Natalia Pogonina, seeded three, with remarkable ease.

Later, in what turned out to be the longest game in the competition so far, Nadezhda's sister, fifth seed Tatiana nailed teammate Elmira Khasanova in a marathon lasting 130 moves.

Today's pairings were designed to carry out the decision taken in the players' meeting held on the eve of the championship. It was decided that participants from the same federation would not be paired on the leading boards in the last three rounds. Since today was the last day when the contenders from same federation could be paired, some Chinese, Russians and Indians faced their compatriots.

After Hari and Ganguly had agreed for a draw to reach seven points, Poobesh too matched the tally by punishing Inarkiev in just 38 moves of Kings Indian four pawn attack. The Russian, came up with a theoretical pawn-sacrifice in the Four-Pawn Attack in Kings Indian, but a poor bishop-move on the ninth turn gave Poobesh the initiative. Thereafter, Poobesh's knight consolidated his gains before an advanced passed pawn, supported by the rooks made Inarkiev see defeat.

Significantly, Poobesh's first victory over a Grandmaster in the championship also ensured a 13-game International Master with three rounds to spare. However, the chances of Poobesh making a GM-norm are very remote considering the quality of opposition he is likely to face in rounds to follow.

The Hari-Ganguly match followed theory until it ended in 23 moves. For a change, Hari surprised Ganguly by opening with his king-pawn. But Ganguly was never in trouble in the Arkhengelsk variation of Ruy Lopez.

On a day when the focus remained on the top boards, unfortunately, the performances of some the Indians stood pushed to the background. Neelotpal Das held fourth seed Miton Kamil, Prathamesh Mokal remained in sight of an IM-norm by splitting points with Yugoslav Veljko Jeremic and Preetham Sharma overpowered Zambia's Amon Simutowe, seeded 17th.

The results (10th round) (Indians unless stated):

Boys: Ferenc Berkes (Hun) (7) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm) (7); Luke McShane (Eng) (7.5) bt Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus) (6.5); Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol) (7) drew with Artyom Timofeev (Rus) (7); P. Hari Krishna (7) drew with Surya Sekhar Ganguly (7); Neelotpal Das (6.5) drew with Miton Kamil (Pol) (6.5); Poobesh Anand (7) bt Ernesto Inarkiev (Rus) (6); Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Ira) (6.5) bt Vladimir Potkin (Rus) (6); Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) (6) drew with Ni Hua (Chn) (6); Meylis Annarberdiev (Tkm) (5.5) lost to Sergey Erenburg (Isr) (6.5); David Smerdon (Aus) (6.5) bt Dmitrios Masstrovasilis (Gre) (5.5); Mark Paragua (Phi) (6) bt Stefan Kristjansson (Ice) (5.5); Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (5) lost to Sergei Azarov (Blr) (6); Prathamesh Mokal (5.5) drew with Jeremic Veljko (Yug) (5.5); Lim Yee Weng (Mal) (5) lost to S. Satyapragyan (6); G. Rohit (6) bt Stefan Bromberger (Ger) (5); Stephen Glinert (Can) (5.5) drew with Roman Bar (Isr) (5.5); S. Kidambi (5.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy (5.5); Rustem Sadykov (Kaz) (6) bt Li Qun (Chn) (5); Jirka Jiri (Cze) (5) lost to Asauskas Henrikas (Lit) (6); Preetham Sharma (6) bt Amon Simutowe (Zam) (5); Yannick Gozzoli (Fra) (5) w/o Darban Varighan (Ira) (6); Pontus Carlsson (Swe) (5.5) bt H.D. Jagadish (5); Sandipan Chanda (5) drew with Vikramaditya Kamble (5); Leong Luke (Sin) (5) drew with Perez Candelario (Esp) (5); P. Poobalan (4.5) lost to Bogdan Vioreanu (Rom) (5.5); Sam Collins (Ire) (5) bt Steve Geinaert (Bel) (4.5); Arghyadip Das (5) bt Soumya Ranjan Mishra (4); G. N. Gopal (4.5) drew with Dmitry Poliakov (Blr) (4.5); Jonas Eriksson (Swe) (5) bt Harald Borchgrevink (Nor) (4); Akshayraj Kore (4.5) drew with Akash Thakur (4.5); Sriram Sarja (5) bt Rishipal Singh (4); Pranjal Phukan (4) lost to David Kjartansson (Ice) (5); R. Siddharth (4.5) drew with R. Naveen (4.5); Edgar Pereira (Nor) (4) drew with Sayantan Dutta (4); Alexandre Vuilleumier (Swi) (4) drew with Stefan Macak (Svk) (4); Athula Russel (Sri) (3.5) lost to Wilson Cruz (4.5); Arjun Tiwari (4) drew with Pratik Shriwas (4); Rahul Sangma (4) bt Graeme Kafka (3.5); Nikhilesh Kumar (4) bt Swapnil Hoble (3); Byomakesh Nayak (4) bt Wendali Sprenger (Aut) (3); Sanchit Agarwal (3) lost to Kosmo Santul (Fin) (4); T. S. Pradeep (4) bt Gurpreet Singh (2.5); J. S. S. Phanikanth (2) drew with Himanshu Kumar (3); Franc Steenkamp (RSA) (3) bt Nehal Shah (Ken) (0).

Girls: Tian Tian (Chn) (6.5) drew with Zhao Xue (Chn) (8); Calotescu Cristina (Rom) (6.5) drew with Koneru Humpy (7.5); Nadezhda Kosintseva (Rus) (7.5) bt Natalia Pogonina (Rus) (6); Wang Yu (Chn) (7) bt Makka Ioulia (Rus) (6); Tatiana Kosintseva (Rus) (6.5) bt Elmira Khasanova (Rus) (5.5); Sophie Millet (Fra) (5.5) lost to Eva Moser (Aut) (6.5); P. Priya (5.5) lost to Elmira Oubiennykh (Rus) (6.5); Savic Marjana (Yug) (5) lost to Eesha Karavade (6.5); Dronavalli Harika (6) bt Tana Holusova (Cze) (5); Ljilja Drljevic (Yug) (5.5) drew with Sofya Zigangirova (Kaz) (5.5); N. Vinuthna (5) lost to Tania Sachdev (6); Polina Churun (Blr) (5) lost to Chandra Hawsa (6); Ketaki Kulkarni (5) drew with Matras Agnieszka (Pol) (5); Silje Bjerke (Nor) (5.5) bt Delgada Trujillo (Esp) (4.5); Cindy Tsai (US) (4) lost to Y. Pratibha (5.5); M. Rajadarshini (4) lost to Jana Jackova (5); M. Priyadarshni (5) bt Leonie Helm (Cze) (4); C. V. Rajalakshmi (4.5) drew with Anoori Shah (4.5); C. Delphin (4.5) drew with J. E. Kavitha (4.5); Anuprita Patil (4) drew with Margarida Coimbra (Por) (4); H. Nilavoli (4.5) bt M. Kasturi (3.5); Nimmy George (4.5) bt Jennitha Anto (3.5); Sarune Lapinskaite (Lit) (3.5) drew with Maygozel Kurbanova (Tkm) (3.5); Veronica Breen (Swe) (4) bt Iara Santana (Bra) (4); Soumya Swaminathan (4) bt Liyana Indeevarie (Sri) (2); Nabeela Farheen (3.5) bye.

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