Deepika, India
Dec 1 2004
Harikrishna becomes youngest Indian to win World junior event
Kochi, Nov 30 (UNI) Grandmaster Pentyala Harikrishna today became the
World Junior Chess champion and the second Indian after Viswanathan
Anand to win the coveted title, when he drew the final round game
after a long 50-move encounter here.
Finishing with 10 points, half-point ahead of the rest in the
71-player field, Harikrishna lifted the title after settling for a
draw against top seed Ferenc Berkes of Hungary. Armenian Petrosian
Tigran bagged silver and Zhao Jun of China finished with bronze.
”It was my career-best result,” an elated Harikrishna, who would be
gaining around 15 Elo points from this event, said. It was his second
world title. Harikrishna had won the World U-10 championship at
Menorca, Spain in 1996.
The girls title was won by top seed Ekaterina Korbut of Russia with
10.5/13 while Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany, the other overnight
leader, finished with silver half a point behind the leader, after
going down to India’s Kruttika Nadig.
IWM Eesha Karavade of India beat Zhang Jilin of China for her second
13-game WGM norm and bronze medal. She too scored the same 9.5
points, but had to be satisfied with the third place on better
progressive rating.
Harikrishna, who came looking for a victory in the final round,
opened with 1.g3 and his strategy was clear. The Hyderabad player won
a pawn on the 18th move but play was clearly headed for an opposite
colour bishop ending.