Negi held by Swiercz; Padmini maintains joint lead

Tue, Aug 10 10 08:51 PM

Chotowa Czarna (Poland) Aug 10 (PTI) Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi was held to a draw by Dariusz Swiercz in the sixth round of the World Junior Chess Championship here. Negi slipped to joint third spot in the premier Junior event of the world as top seeded Dmitry Andreikin of Russia caught up with Swiercz in the lead on 5 points defeating A R Saleh Salem of the United Arab Emirates. It is in fact a 15-way tie for the third spot and M R Lalith Babu is the other Indian tied on four points along with Negi who will take on Kirill Stupak of Belarus in the next round. In the girls'' championship being played simultaneously, Padmini Rout continued with her dream run and defeated Olga Girya of Russia to maintain her joint lead. Padmini now shares the top position on 5.5 points along with top seed Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia. Seven rounds still remain in both the sections. Anwesh Upadhyay''s chances for a Grandmaster norm suffered a setback as he went down fighting against Robert Hovhannisyan of Armenia. S P Sethuraman continued with his comeback mission after a disastrous start and reached a respectable four points at the expense of compatriot Debashish Das. Swapnil Dhopade was outdone by Aleksandr Kasyan of Uzbekistan, Sagar Shah did well to hold Pavel Potapov of Russia while Ashwin Jayaram reached three points defeating Jan Zyosko of Poland. Arun Karthik failed to deliver the goods and was held to a draw by lowly rated Blazej Kaleta of Poland. Amongst the Indian girls only Padmini seems to be rocking. Bhakti Kulkarni went down to Gulnar Marfat Mammadova of Azerbaijan while B Pratyusha accounted for Sabina Jablonska of Poland. Negi employed the Grunfeld defense with black pieces and did not have troubles in equalising from a recently popular system. Swiercz tried to complicate things in the early stages of the middle game after sacrificing a pawn but Negi''s timely return of extra material ensured parity. The game was drawn through repetition of moves. Lalith Babu drew with Falko Bindrich of Germany from a queen pawn game. A complex middle game ensued where Babu sacrificed a pawn and Bindrich had to be on his guard as his king was in the center. The German eventually liquidated and Babu won his pawn back to reach a level endgame. Padmini gave a remarkable endgame lesson to Olga who played the black side of a Caro Kann defense. The Indian girl was initially under pressure in trying to find the best resources after being a pawn less in a Queen and rook endgame but once Olga erred and lost her extra pawn, Padmini was on a roll. Padmini first won a pawn and then calculated correctly to reach a winning ending. The game lasted 56 moves. (More) PTI Corr SHN

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