Hari beats Humpy, reaches tabletop

Pentyala Harikrishna vs Koneru Humpy.The game between the two teenaged Indian Grandmasters from Andhra Pradesh was the toast of the eighth r...

Pentyala Harikrishna vs Koneru Humpy.

The game between the two teenaged Indian Grandmasters from Andhra Pradesh was the toast of the eighth round of the World Junior Chess Championship on Wednesday. For Hari, the eighth round victory at Hotel Casino was doubly sweet as it not only gave him sole lead again but also the first full point against Humpy in three games between them so far. Hari reached seven points with his sixth win in the event.

With black, Hari got a solid position by move 16 when he invited white to exchange the Queens in the King-rook file. Humpy fell for it and got into an inferior ending. Hari had a strong knight and Humpy a bad bishop. And when one of the rooks also got exchanged, Hari’s knight swung into action, winning a pawn. By move 36, Humpy realised she had nothing to play for in the position and gave up.

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Zhao Jun of China looked better in Petroff Defence against Tigran Petrosian of Armenia on the top board but the game was drawn after 58 moves in a rook versus knight ending. Petrosian and Jun trailed Hari in second position with 6.5 points each.

In the girls section, top seed Ekaterina Korbut of Russia staged a big recovery when she scored a full point against leader Anna Ushenina of Ukraine in the eighth round. Korbut shared the lead with Ushenina and Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany with six points each. Saheli Nath of India did well to split the point with Zhang Jilin of China in a Sicilian game and took her points tally to 5.5.