Chess: Narayanan loses but stays in hunt of Grandmaster norm

International Master SL Narayanan went down fighting against third seed Wei Yi of China but remained in the hunt for his Grandmaster norm after the end of the eighth round of World Junior Chess Championship on Tuesday. The Indian challenge in the championships suffered a serious setback following Narayanan’s loss. The Indian was unbeaten till the seventh round and will now have to stage a comeback to pose a challenge. [caption id=“attachment_1756719” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. Reuters[/caption] The norm chances however remained for Narayanan despite the loss and depending upon the opposition, a draw might still be enough in the next round to secure the Grandmaster norm. Wei Yi was at his best and played out a solid positional game as white to reach 6.5 points. The Chinese went for the topical Advance variation in the Caro Kann defense and after attaining the spatial advantage went about his task of exerting pressure on both flanks. Narayanan lost a pawn while dealing with the crisis and the resulting rook and minor piece endgame was handled in copy-book fashion by the Chinese. With three leaders in front International Master Diptayan Ghosh jumped to fourth spot after beating Kriebel Tadeas of Czech Republic. The Indian has elite company on six points led by top seed Vladimir Fedoseev, Mikhail Antipov, both from Russia along with Jorge Cori and Bai Jinshi of China. Apart from Diptayan’s hard-earned victory, highest-rated Indian Vidit Gujrathi brought some cheers for the home crowd by scoring a comeback victory over Matej Blazeka of Croatia. Gujrathi showed his class in a one-sided affair ending the game with a fine tactical stroke after getting an advantageous position out of a queen pawn game as white. While Gujrathi moved to five points, Aravindh Chithambaram, N Srinath and Prasanna Rao are among those who have 5.5 points apiece. With five rounds still to come, things are only going to heat up in every round. In the girls’ section being played simultaneously, India’s best hope Padmini Rout also lost to defending champion Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia on the top board. It was a strange move order by Rout as black in the Dutch defense probably to confuse her opponent but as things moved forward the Russian girl seemed more in control of the situation. It was on the 25th move that Rout made the decisive error leading to damage on the king side and nine moves later it was all over. Goryachkina remained in joint lead alongside Ann Chumpitaz of Peru and Anna Iwanow of Poland on 6.5 points apiece. Rout fell behind in rankings and remained on 5.5 points and it’s hard work again for Rout here in the remaining five rounds. Important results round 8 open (Indians unless specified): Karen Grigoryan (Arm, 6.5) beat Jorge Cori (Per, 6); Wei Yi (Chn, 6.5) beat S L Narayanan (5.5); Lu Shanglei (Chn, 6.5) beat Benjamin Bok (Ned, 5); Ducarmon Quinten (Ned, 5) lost to Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 6); Aravindh Chithambaram (5.5) drew with Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 5.5); Mikhail Antipov (Rus, 6) beat Anurag Mhamal (Ind, 5); Diptayan Ghosh (Ind, 6) beat Kriebel Tadeas (Cze, 5); Ulvi Bajarani (Aze, 5) lost to Bai Jinshi (Chn, 6); Aleksander Indjic (Srb, 5) drew with Linus Johansson (Swe, 5.5); Shardul Gagare (4.5) lost to Kamil Dragun (Pol, 5.5); Csonka Balazs (Hun, 5) drew with Ankit Rajpara (5); Ider Borya (Fra, 5) drew with Murali Karthikeyan (5); Paulo Bersamina (Phi, 5.5) beat Sahaj Grover (4.5); Novak Cabarkapa (Srb, 4.5) lost to Aryan Tari (Nor, 5.5); Prasanna Raghuram Rao (5.5) beat Prince Bajaj (4.5); Rajdeep Sarkar (5) drew with Sayantan Das (5); Niranjan Navalgund (4.5) lost to Narayanan Srinath (5.5); Robin Van Kampen (Ned, 5) beat Abhimanyu Puranik (4.5); Vidit Gujrathi (5) beat Matej Blazeka (Cro, 4); Duda Jan-Krzysztof (Pol, 5) beat Harsha Bharathakoti (4); Nijat Abasov (Aze, 5) beat M G Gahan (4); Toms Kantans (Lat, 5) beat Pranav Shetty (4); K. Praneeth Surya (4) lost to Christopher Repka (Svk, 5); M Chakravarthi Reddy (4) lost to Marco Codenotti (Ita, 5); Arat Ufuk Sezen (Tur, 5) beat Mohammad Ashraf (4); Ege Koksal (Tur, 5) beat S Yogit (4); R Ganesh (4) lost to Irakli Beradze (Geo, 5). Girls: Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus, 6.5) beat Padmini Rout (5.5); Daria Pustovoitova (Rus, 5.5) lost to Anna Iwanow (Pol, 6.5); Marina Brunello (Ita, 5) lost to Ann Chumpitaz (Per, 6.5); Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri, 6) beat Ivana Maria Furtado (5); Ioana Gelip (Rou, 6) beat P V Nandhidhaa (5); Gu Tianlu (Chn, 4.5) lost to Zhai Mo (Chn, 5.5); Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 5) drew with Srija Seshadri (5); Sabina Ibrahimova (Aze, 5.5) beat Rucha Pujari (4.5); Irina Petrukhina (Rus, 5) drew with V Varshini (5); Mae Frayna Janelle (Phi, 5.5) beat Shweta Gole (4.5); Meri Arabidze (Geo, 5) beat Sakshi Chitlange (4); Pratyusha Bodda (5) beat Mila Zarkovic (Srb, 4); Vlada Sviridova (Rus, 5) beat Tihana Ivekovic (Cro, 4); Monpeurt Cyrielle (Fra, 5) beat GK Monnisha (4); Tea Gueci (5) beat Tarini Goyal (4); Potluri Supreetha (4) lost to Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva (Uzb, 4.5); San Diego Marie Antoinette (Phi, 3.5) lost to Mona Khaled (Egy, 4.5); Maria Gevorgyan (Arm, 4.5) beat Caballero Quijano Mitzy Mishe (Per, 3.5); R Vaishali (4) drew with Jessica Bengtsson (Swe, 4); M Mahalakshmi (3.5) lost to Harshita Guddanti (4.5); Liu Manli Chn (Chn, 4.5) beat Ananya Suresh (3.5); Aakanksha Hagawane (4) beat Klara Varga (Hun, 3); Vantika Agrawal (3) lost to Fronda Jan Jodilyn (Phi, 4); Anjana Krishna (3) lost to Aysa Imeeva (Rus, 4); Mahasweta Kumar (4) beat Angelina Fransson (Swe, 3); Larissa Ichimura G. Barbosa (Bra, 3.5) drew with Parveen Hilmi (3.5). PTI