Tigran on the prowl, shares lead with Hari
HARI HARA NANDANAN
Indian Express, India
Nov 22 2004
KOCHI, NOVEMBER 21: Watch out for Armenian Tigran L Petrosian. He is
on a roll and may well be on the way to his first major international
title in the World Junior Chess Championship at Hotel Casino here. On
Sunday, he bettered top seed Ferenc Berkes of Hungary, rated almost
100 points above him in the FIDE list, and shared the lead with
India’s Pentyala Harikrishna with four points each.
Hari accounted for Hans Tikkanen of Sweden from the black side on the
second board and is slated to meet Petrosian on Monday in the fifth
round in what could turn out to be the big clash of the tournament.
Petrosian played the black side of the Tarrasch Defence and jumped at
the chance that came his way after white’s 16th move, a pawn
sacrifice in the king-rook file. Everything started happening after
this move as black sacrificed a rook on the kingside, regrouped his
queen, rook and bishop for a kingside onslaught and then promoted his
queen-pawn.
Faced with all kinds of threats, including a mating attack, the top
seed resigned after 40 moves.
Hari accounted for Hans Tikkanen of Sweden from the black side of
Catalan Opening in 40 moves. Hari got a slight advantage out of the
opening and put pressure on white. By move 30, Tikkanen had to
sacrifice an exchange and after that couldn’t get out of the rut and
his pieces were tied down. ”He had the bishop pair but that was not
enough,” said Hari who promoted his queenside passer to register his
fourth win in the event.
Deepan Chakravarty caused a minor upset, beating Grandmaster Timur
Gareyev of Uzbekistan in 30 moves in a Sicilian Defence in the fourth
round. Deepan found a mating net with the queen, rooks and bishop on
the kingside.
Koneru Humpy outwitted Joannes Manyedi of South Africa in the fourth
round in a Queen’s Indian Defence game. The Indian GM got space
advantage and converted it into material in the end.
In the girls section, Joanna Majdan (Poland) and Anna Ushenina
(Ukraine) split the point after an exciting battle of sacrifices.
Majdan, Ushenina and Zhang Jilin of China share the lead with 3.5
points each after four rounds.