Blunder costs Swati dear

In the boy’s category, top contender International Master P Harikrishna (Elo 2500) kept his reputation intact by overcoming Du Shan of China to share the top spot with four others having accumulated two points each from as many games.

Swati, playing with white pieces, opened with `e4′ to which Tania replied with `c5′ and later the game transposed into a closed Sicilian. On the 18th move Swati, playing in her last junior Asian, doubled `b’ pawns to force the exchange of queens.

Later Swati occupied an open a file with rooks to attack `a7′ pawn. On the 33rd move her rival got the isolated d pawn and then won a piece by queening the `c’ pawn on the 44th move which led to Swati’s resignation 17 moves later.

Koneru Humpy sidelined fifth seeded Indian compatriot and National women’s runner-up S Meenakshi while ninth seed Elena picked-up from where she left against Aarthie in the first round on Wednesday to beat Chauthi Ngoc Giao of Vietnam

IWM and the player with the best Elo rating in the girls section, Aarthie, put behind her surprise loss in the opening round to score over Madina Duisenova of Kazakhstan and earn her first point in two games.

Another IWM Nisha Mohta (Elo 2275) failed to edge past China’s Yu Ting to split points while Y Pratibha (2097) defeated Feroza Haque Chowdhary of Bangladesh to coast to her first win.

Harikrishna playing with black pieces, got converted into an English opening against Du Shan. The game was level till the 31st move when Hari occupied the open `h’ file and secured the initiative. He later exchanged the rook on `h1′ and parity was restored.

But the Chinese boy blundered by playing king to `f3′ instead of `f2′ and Hari took control of the game to win in 54 moves in a king and pawn ending.

On the second board, the game between the two International Master’s Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Elo 2498) and compatriot Tejas Bakre (2358) changed into Sicilian Sozin attack with the former playing with white pieces. After an offer of a pawn sacrifice by Bakre, accepted by Ganguly on the 16th move, gave the former good moving space.

He also got back the lost pawn on the 23rd move but then played badly and the two players agreed for a draw in 40 moves.

In another boys’ clash unrated Indian CJ Arvind surprised all by holding fifth-seeded Indian compatriot Neelotpal Das to a draw in 33 moves.

Results (Round II) (all from India unless stated otherwise):

Boys:

Du Shan (China, 1) lost to P Harikrishna (2), Surya Sekhar Ganguly (1.5) drew Tejas Bakre (1.5), Said Rakhimbov (Kazak, 1) lost to Ghaem Maghami (Iran, 2), Mark Paragua (Philip, 2) bt Enamul Hoosein (Bangla, 1), CJ Arvind (1.5) drew Neelotpal Das (1.5), Taher Mullajumaa (Kuwait, 1) lost to S Satyapragyan (2), Al Sayed Mohammed (Qatar, 1) lost to Valay Parikh (2), S Kidambi (1.5) bt Annaberdiev Meillis (Turkme, 0), V Kamble (1) bt M Satyajit (0.5), Magesh Chandran (1) bt Anton Filippov (Uzbek, 0), PMAB Athukorala (Lanka, 0) lost to Arjun Tiwari (1), P Mokal (0) lost to John Paul Gomez (Philip, 1), Akshayraj Kore (0) lost to Syed Hassan (Pak, 1), Himanshu Kumar (0.5) drew S Ranjan Mishra (0.5).

Girls: Koneru Humpy (2) bt S Meenakshi (1), Yu Ting (China, 1.5) drew Nisha Mohota (1.5), Swati Ghate (1) lost to Tania Sachdev (2), Elena Levishkina (Uzbek, 2) bt Chauthi Ngoc Giao (Vietnam, 0.5), Madina Duisenova (Kazak, 0.5) lost to Aarthie Ramaswamy (1), Anupama Konara (0.5) drew Beverly Mendoza (Philip, 0.5), Y Pratibha (1) beat Feroza Haque Chowdhary (Bangla, 0), P Sivakami (O) lost to JE Kavitha (1).