NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Bad day for India in World Jr. Chess

It was a poor day for India as national champion S. Kadambi and IWM Nisha Monota suffered defeats in the second round of the World Junior Boys and Girls' Chess Championships in Yerevan today.

Kadambi faced Arinsom Lewis (rating 2518) of Armenia who recently reached the second round of the World Chess Championship (FIDE) at Las Vegas and lost to Timman in the second round there.

Playing black, Arinsom played the Nimzo Indian defence and did not take any chances. It was an unclear game till the black placed his rook on c3 on move No. 31, which confused Kadambi and he made a mistake on the 35th move and lost the game.

Now, Kadambi has 0.5 points out of 2.

Nisha Monota played against Tkeshelashviti Sopio of Georgia. Sopio had all the advantages in the opening itself. She chose the Slav defence, had double Bishops, queenside pawn majority and was able to push her pawn to c-2 square and gain a piece for the pawn. Finding no compensation, Nisha resigned in the 52nd move itself. Now, Nisha has one point out of two.

In contrast to the Indian players, players from Greece had a good day. Both the Greek players played very well against the top seeds. IM Halkins Stelris (Greece) held top seed GM Kasimdzamov Rustom (Uzbekistan) to a draw in the boys' section while Kouvasti Mania defeated Krush Irina (USA) in the girls' section.

After the end of the second round, three players, Asrian Kavwan, Chibhukh Arbir, both from Armenia, and Arubiunians Dass of Georgia are leading in the boys' group with two points each.

In the girls' section, five players - Tkeshelasviti Sopio, Khukhashviti Sopio (both Georgia), Seergeeva Mavina of Kazakhistan, Kouvatsam Maria (Greece) and Jackuva Jaria (Greece) - share the lead with two points each.

UNI