Harikrishna wins to
remain in joint lead
Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna overwhelmed GM Peter Wells of England to remain in joint lead with GM Joseph Gallagher of Switzerland and GM Luke Mcshane of England after the seventh round in the Smith and Williamson
British Chess championship in Torquay, England.
The three leaders have 5.5 points apiece and are
followed by a wolf-pack of seven players, including India's
National champion GM Abhijit Kunte and World Junior girls'
champion WGM Koneru Humpy, who have 5 points each.
Not far behind is top seed GM Krishnan Sasikiran, who
disposed of Pert Richards in a one-sided game to get back to
his familiar winning ways. Sasikiran is on 4.5 points along
with 14 others.
Four more rounds remain in this 10,000 pound sterling
first prize championship.
Harikrishna displayed top form in crushing Wells. Playing
with the black pieces, the Indian super-talent opened with the
Sicilian defence and expectedly faced the Rossolimo attack by
Wells. The battle was reminiscent of the last encounter
between the two in the Hastings Premier tournament where also
Harikrishna had scored an easy victory.
Not content with a simple equality in the opening, Wells
went for unwarranted complications in the early middlegame and
was saddled with a rather innocuous position that gave
Harikrishna all the chances to launch an attack on the King.
Deploying his Queen perfectly, Harikrishna did just the
needful and forced Wells to part with an exchange on the 26th
move. Seeing no hope for any counter play, Wells called it a
day on his next turn.
Koneru Humpy drew with GM Jonathan Rowson with the black
pieces. The opening was the in-vogue Petroff defence and, much
to the delight of the followers of this game, it turned out to
be a bloody battle.
Rowson opted for some tactical play right from the word
go but Humpy matched him move for move and the pieces kept
changing hands at regular intervals. Left with the Bishops of
opposite colours, Rowson's extra pawn was definitely not
enough to give him the extra half point he was looking for.
The draw was agreed to in after 38 moves.
Dibyendu Barua went down fighting against Gallagher
while Abhijit Kunte accounted for Evans-Quek Suan Shiau.
Gauri Shankar wins Under-9 British Junior title
Bangalore-based C M Gauri Shankar won the Under-9 British Junior chess championship, which was held at
Torquay, according to the British Chess Federation.
In a fax message from London, the Federation said
Gauri Shankar won all his seven matches to record a cent per
cent score.
As he has already won the Under-11 British championship
in this series, Gauri Shankar claimed a double crown in the
20002 Championship held by the federation, the statement said.
Earlier reports:
Round 4: Indians slip to second position
Round 3: Humpy wins; emerges joint leader
Round 2: Sasikiran emerges joint leader
Round 1: Sasikiran begins on winning note
Result: Round 7
Bd WHITE Result BLACK PIN
1 SPEELMAN,Jon (4½) ½ - ½ TURNER,Matthew J (4½) 2 13
2 WELLS,Peter (4½) 0 - 1 HARIKRISHNA,Pentala (4½) 18 3
3 ROWSON,Jonathan (4½) ½ - ½ KONERU,Humpy (4½) 4 20
4 MCSHANE,Luke J (4½) 1 - 0 PERT,Nicholas (4½) 6 22
5 GALLAGHER,Joseph G (4½) 1 - 0 BARUA,Dibyendu (4½) 14 7
6 HASLINGER,Stewart G (4) ½ - ½ EMMS,John M (4) 41 5
7 LALIC,Bogdan (4) 1 - 0 COLLINS,Sam (4) 8 38
8 LEE,Graham (4) 0 - 1 GORMALLY,Daniel (4) 32 11
9 RAMESH,R.B (4) ½ - ½ GANGULY,Sura Sekhar (4) 23 12
10 EVANS-QUEK,Suan Shiau (4) 0 - 1 KUNTE,Abhijit (4) 48 19
11 BERRY,Neil M (4) ½ - ½ LANE,Gary (4) 53 21
12 SANDIPAN,Chanda (3½) 1 - 0 LITTLEWOOD,Paul E. (4) 16 26
13 SASIKIRAN,Krishnan (3½) 1 - 0 PERT,Richard (3½) 1 33
14 HEBDEN,Mark (3½) 1 - 0 HANLEY,Craig (3½) 10 35
15 WALL,Gavin (3½) 0 - 1 SUMMERSCALE,Aaron (3½) 31 15
16 LEDGER,Dave J (3½) 0 - 1 WARD,Chris G (3½) 47 17
17 D'COSTA,Lorin (3½) 1 - 0 MCDONALD,Neil (3½) 54 28
18 THIPSAY,Bhagyashree (3) 0 - 1 FLEAR,Glenn C. (3) 51 9
19 WILLIAMS,Simon K. (3) 1 - 0 WEBB,Laurence (3) 24 52
20 WOHL,Aleksander H (3) 1 - 0 HUTCHINSON,Paul A. (3) 25 55
21 VIJAYALAKSHMI,Subbara (3) ½ - ½ MEENAKSHI,Subbaraman (3) 27 49
22 THOMAS,Nicholas (3) 0 - 1 KNOTT,Simon JB (3) 58 30
23 SHERWIN,James (3) 0 - 1 ADDISON,Bret C (3) 34 68
24 SOWRAY,Peter (3) ½ - ½ SIMPSON,James (3) 36 60
25 RUDD,Jack (3) 1 - 0 DEVEREAUX,Maxim L (3) 87 37
26 TRENT,Lawrence (3) 0 - 1 COX,John (3) 59 39
27 MUIR,Andrew J. (3) ½ - ½ SHAW,David A (3) 43 79
28 TAN,Desmond (3) 1 - 0 DORRINGTON,Christophe (3) 44 69
29 GRANT,Jonathan (3) 1 - 0 RAMSAWAMY,Aarthie (3) 74 45
30 RICHARDS,Heather (3) 1 - 0 WILLMOTH,Robert (3) 46 77
31 SARAVANAN,Venkatachal (2½) 1 - 0 HOWELL,David W (2½) 29 70
32 EAMES,Robert (2½) 0 - 1 SNAPE,Ian L (2½) 40 73
33 TAYLOR,Peter P. (2½) ½ - ½ MASON,Don (2½) 66 50
34 BIGG,Andrew J (2½) 1 - 0 GOLDBERG,Jeff (2½) 57 90
35 BUCKLEY,Simon (2½) ½ - ½ NIXON,Thomas CM (2½) 61 80
36 WOODWARD,Timothy (2½) 1 - 0 JONES,Gawain C (2½) 72 62
37 GHATE,Swati (2½) 1 - 0 HUTCHINSON,Norman (2½) 64 88
38 MARTYN,Rafe (2) 0 - 1 JONES,Richard S. (2½) 75 65
39 LYELL,Mark (2) 0 - 1 WU,Li (2) 56 86
40 WHEELER,John F. (2) 1 - 0 DOUGLAS,Timothy (2) 63 82
41 COOTE,Trevor D. (2) ½ - ½ DHAR-BARUA,Saheli (2) 91 67
42 HARBORNE,Matthew J (2) ½ - ½ BURNETT,Jim (2) 96 76
43 ASHTON,,Adam (2) ½ - ½ TAYLOR,Robert Mark (2) 85 78
44 TATLOW,Stephen (1½) 0 - 1 MUTTON,Jonathan B (1½) 92 71
45 WHITE,Ian R. (1½) 0 - 1 BUCKLEY,Melanie (1½) 93 81
46 EVANS-QUEK,Debbie (1½) 1 - 0 TRUMAN,Richard G. (½) 89 94
47 GREGORY,Stephen J (1) ½ - ½ MCMASTER,Richard (1) 83 95
