VN MASTERS DRAW, DROP DOWN

VietNamNet Bridge
13:28′ 13/08/2008 (GMT+7)
Vietnam

VietNamNet Bridge – Both representatives of Vietnam drew in the World
Junior Chess Championship’s ninth round on Monday, bringing them both
down in ranking.

The ninth seed of the tournament Grand Master (GM) Nguyen Ngoc
Truong Son (Elo 2,579) tied unexpectedly with International Master
(IM) Hrant Melkumyan (Elo 2,507) from Armenia while GM Le Quang Liem
(Elo 2,577) drew with Indian IM Arun Prasad Subramanian (Elo 2,492).

Son now has six points and ranks 11th, one spot lower than the
day before.

The draw has worse consequences for Liem, with 5.5 points, shooting
him down three spots from 20th to 23rd. It was an upset for the master
who was seeded No 10 and considered a potential tide candidate.

In the next round, Son will play Chinese GM Wen Yang whose Elo
rating is 2,487 and Liem will face the Turkish master Atakan Sirin
(Elo 2,107).

Both rivals are considered weaker than the Vietnamese representatives,
with lower Elo ratings.

As for the rest of the international crowd, the youngsters’ fighting
spirits carried on and the top spot changed hands again.

GM Maxim Rodshtein (Elo 2,605) of Israel crowned his comeback with
a victory over one of the joint leaders GM Chao Li (Elo 2,590)
from China.

However, the new sole leader is German IM Arik Braun who scored a vital
win against Chinese Women GM Hou Yifan (Elo 2,557) with white pieces.

England’s GM David Howell, the player with the longest and most
thrilling games, faced GM Ivan Popov (Elo 2,549) at the other side
of the table and defeated him.

Braun now leads with 7.5 points followed by Howell with seven. Fourth
to seventh places went to Li, GM Eltaj Safarli (Elo 2,527) of
Azerbaijan and Filipino GM Wesley So (Elo 2,577) respectively.

On the girls’ side, Indian IM Dronavalli Harika (Elo 2,461) drew with
her fellow patriot Women IM Swaminathan Soumya (Elo 2,293) to defend
her lead with 7.5 points.

WGM Mariya Muzychuk (Elo 2,413) of Ukraine drew with Women FIDE Master
(WFM) Guliskan Nakhbayeva (Elo 2,170) from Kazakhstan, Muzychuk
follows Harika at seven points together with WIM Miranda Mikadze
(Elo 2,258) of Georgia who defeated Russian WFM Zoja Severiukhina
(Elo 2,300) to share second and third places.

The world tournament, which kicked off on August 2 and will close this
Saturday, has drawn the participation of 195 masters from 60 countries.

The championships are under the auspices of FIDE and the organisation
of the Turkish Chess Federation and Sehitkamil Municipality.

The winner of each group will be the player with the most points
after the 13-round-robin format.