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Four Titles For India
By Arvind Aaron
India improved on its lone title of 2007 by bagging four titles or
gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals in the World
Youth Chess Championship that concluded at Vung Tau in Vietnam on October
30.
IM Baskar Adhiban of Velammal School, Chennai won the World Under-16
championship in style as India made a podium sweep in this section.
Chennai's National Sub-Junior champion S.P. Sethuraman finished second to
take home the silver. Debashis Das won the bronze medal.
"We are proud that our son won the World Under-16 championship," said
Baskar, a Chennai based businessman who runs a printing press. Most
such parents were on the Internet or already at Vietnam.
At Batumi in 2006 India took five titles but this time it was more
significant since Russia did not play in 2006 at Georgia and this
time the best players took from all the nations.
The significance is that the Indian wave is getting wider and higher in
chess. A record 110 Indians took part. So much so that next time
there might be an Air India jet flying our players to the Youth Chess
Championship at Turkey.
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi is on a roll. The boy from Nasik is developing into
a mega star. He had a strong showing in the Commonwealth
Championship at Nagpur. He won the Under-14 title by a clear margin of
9.5/11.
Sayatan Das from Kolkata won the World Under-12 Championship. It is
India's pet section and many players have won it before. He also did
it by a one point margin like Padmini Rout.
India is making progress in these events. Our sheer professionalism in
chess at the top is come down until the Under-8 players. China's
manufacturing of chess players strategy does not work. Indians have so far
won 27 world titles including the first won by Anand in the World
Junior in 1987. This number includes the four added at Vietnam and one at
Bonn yesterday.
Indian winners came from West (Nasik), South (Chennai), East (Kolkata,
Bhubaneswar). North missed out of the title this time. In the World
Junior, Abhijeet Gupta of Bhilwara (Raj) and Parimarjan Negi (Del) took
Gold and Silver at Turkey this August and the north is never left
out.
Padmini Rout had won with a round to spare and also remained undefeated in
the Girls Under-14 section. She was too strong for that field and a
good future awaits her.
Madurai girl R. Preethi won the silver in the World Under-18 Girls
championship while Bodda Pratyusha (AP) in Girls Under-12 took the
bronze.
Final placings (sections with Indians winning medals):
Boys Under-16: 1 B. Adhiban 9/11, 2 S.P. Sethuraman 8, 3 Debashis Das
8...73 players
Boys Under-14: 1 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 9/11, 2 Nodar Lortkipanidze (Geo)
8.5, 3 Daniusz Swiercz (Pol) 8...86 players.
Boys Under-12: Sayatan Das 9.5/11, 2 Dmitry Gordievskiy (Rus) 8.5, 3 Yang
Darwin (USA) 8...94 players.
Girls Under-18: 1 Valentina Golubenko (Cro) 9/11, 2 R. Preethi 8, 3 Olga
Girya (Rus) 7.5... 47 players.
Girls Under-14: 1 Padmini Rout 10/11, 2 Meri Arabidze (Geo) 9, 3 Diana
Baciu (Mda) 8...79 players.
Girls Under-12: 1 Zhai Mo (Chn) 8.5/11, Filiz Osmanodja (Ger) 8.5, 3 Bodda
Pratyusha 8.....72 players.
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Published on 30th October, 2008
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