Indian players find the going tough
Report by Mr.R.Anantharam

Indian players find the going tough, as only six out of twelve categories have either sole or joint leaders in the Asian Youth Chess Championship, being held at Iran. With two rounds left for U8, U18 (boys and girls) U14 girls and three more rounds for the remaining categories they have to display a sterling performance to fetch more gold medals. Players from countries like Iran, UAE and Uzbekistan have made a lot of home work to meet the challenge of Indian players.

Prasanna Rao, a bright gold medal hope in the U14 boys category, defeated Goluber Roman of Uzbekistan to lead the field with 5.5 points from 6 games. Idani Pouya of Iran is on 5 points, followed by Vidit Gujrati on 4.5. C.H. Mohineesh is another sole leader with 5 points in the U10 group. While he defeated Bahami Amir Mohammed of Iran, Diptayan Ghosh and Mahapatra Sidant also scored fluent wins to reach 4.5 points. In the U12 category, Girish A. Kowshik toppled Javanbhakt Nima of Iran to share the lead with him with 5 points each. Shardul Gagare and Shiven Khosla drew their game to score 4.5 points.

The U10 girls group saw the emergence of M. Mahalakshmi as the sole leader with 5.5 points, after her win over Alijenzadeh Mohadeesh of Iran. Ivana Maria Furtado lost to Sweety Patel and the latter has 4.5 points to her credit. In the U18 section for girls, P. Uthra defated K. Manasa to maintain the lead with 4.5 points from 5 games. She is followed by Muminova Nafisa of Uzbekistan and Jaferi Golnaz of Iran with 4 points. R. Preethi had her fourth draw today to score 3 points. Only the U14 girls section remained complicated, as five players share the lead with 3.5 points from 5 rounds. Padmini Rout and J. Mohana Priya are the only two Indians in the leaders' list.

Back to the boys section, Indians have lost their grip in the U18, 16 and 8 categories. In the U18 category, FM Toufigi Homayoon of Iran surged ahead (4.5 points) at the expense of national u17 champion P. Saravana Krishnan(3). In a strong U16 group, Saleh A.R. Salem is psychologically in a commanding position with 5.5 points, as his arch rivals S.P. Sethuraman and B. Adhiban are at a distant 3.5 points. S. Nitin (4.5) and IM M. Shyam Sundar(4) had consolation victories and the former is in the second position. Omidi Arya of Iran upset Nigmatov Ortik of Uzbekistan to sahre the lead with him (4 each). Y. Grahesh suffered second consecutive loss, the last one at the hands of Tran Minh Thang of Vietnam.

The draw between Pratyusha Bodda and Rathore Sonakshi forced them to slip to second spot (4.5) , as the other co leader in the earlier round, Khadamelshareih Sarasadat defeated Saduakasova Dinara of kazakstan to gain the lead with 5 points. Though Shalmali Gagare (4) upset the apple cart of the leader Y. Hoang Thi Nhu of Vietnam (4.5), the latter remained on top in the U16 section for girls. Bhakti Kulkarnai lost to Hejazipur Mitra of Iran and Pon N Krithika drew with Enxtuul Altanolzii of Magnolia. Both are on 4 points, together with Shalmali. Sagar Tejaswini defeated the top seed Savat Riya to move to the second spot with 4 points in the U8 category.

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