Arthie8217;s cup woes continues

But, it was a different story for IWM Koneru Humpy Elo 2288 at the Avion Hotel here. Humpy playing to her potentials, sidelined compatriot Tania Sachdev to go atop the points table with four points. She is followed by Sachdev, Ting and Elena Levushkina of Uzbekistan with each having three points.

In the boysacirc;euro;trade; section, top seed P Harikrishna was held to a tame draw by National junior runner-up S Kidambi. This point splitting exercise brought both players to the second spot with three points each. National junior champion and second seed International Master IM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, former Asian junior champion Tejas Bakre and S Satyapragyan are leading with 3.5 points each.

Yu Ting gained a advantage against Aarthie when she won a pawn on 16th move in Sicilian Defence.Both the players exchanged their major pieces on 24th move. In Bishop and pawn ending, Aarthie lost another pawn on the 44th move which enabled Yu Ting to win the game in 53 moves.

Tania Sachdev reached a theoretical Kingacirc;euro;trade;s Indian set-ups position against her fancied opponent Koneru Humpy.She unnecessarily weakened her kingside with a rash forward move of one of the pawns defending her king.Tania compounded the mistake by exchanging her black squared bishop to win a pawn through a combination.

Humpy capitalised on this chance and mounted a ferocious attack using the weakened black squares in the opponentacirc;euro;trade;s camp. With a series of hammer blows, Humpy ripped open the black kingsacirc;euro;trade; position and forced Tania to resign on the 33rd move.

In the boyacirc;euro;trade;s section, The top board battle between Harikrishna and Kidambi was a tame affair.From the white side of a Queenacirc;euro;trade;s Gambit declined, Kidambi saddled Harikrishna with an isolated pawn on acirc;euro;tilde;d5acirc;euro;trade;. Having exchanged all but two of the minor pieces, the players signed the peace treaty after 30 moves.

Ganguly could obtain only a slightly better position against the Sicilian Defence employed by International Master Meghani of Iran.In an attempt to come out of a cramped position in a Queenless middlegame, the Iranian allowed Ganguly to saddle him with an isolated pawn on the acirc;euro;tilde;eacirc;euro;trade; file.Ganguly used the weakness very effectively to capture a couple of pawns and weaved a mating net around Meghaniacirc;euro;trade;s king and forced him to resign in 44 moves.

Results Round IV

Boys: SS Ganguly 3.5 pts bt Gheem Masghami 2.5, S Kidambi 3 drew P Harikrishna 3, Tejas Bakre 3.5 bt Mark Paragua 2.5, S Satyapragyan 3.5 bt Enamul Hussain 2.5, Al Sayed Mohammed Qatar, 3 bt John Paul G Philippines, 2, Sayd Rakhimbekov Kazakhistan, 3 bt Syed Hassan Pakistan, 2, Valay Parikh 3 bt Mahesh Chandran 2, CJ Arvind 2.5 bt M Satyajit 1.5, Du Shan China, 1.5 drew Neelotpal Das 2, Vikramaditya Kamble 2 bt M Athukorala Sri Lanka 1, Mathew Sonter Australia, 2 bt M Annaberdiev Turkmenistan, 1, Taher M Jumma Kuwait, 0 drew Arjun Tiwari 1.5, Fillipov Anton Philippinse, 1.5 bt Himanshu Kumar 0.5, Prathmesh Mokal 1 bt Soumyaranjan Mishra 0.5.

Girls: Koneru Humpy 4 bt Tania Sachdev 3, Yu Ting Chinese, 3 bt Aarthi Ramaswami 2, Levushkina Elena Uzbeskistan, 3 bt JE Kavita 2, Nisha Mohota 2.5 bt Chau Nu Gung Vietnam, 1.5, S Meenakshi 2.5 bt Beverly Mendoza Philippines, 1.5, Swathi Ghate 2 bt Pazha Sivakame Philippines, 1, D Madina Kazakhstan, 1.5 bt Y Pratibha 1, Anupama Konara 1.5 bt Feroza H Choudhary Bangladesh-0.

Fridayacirc;euro;trade;s results: Boyacirc;euro;trade;s: Harikrishna 2.5 drew Mark Paragua 2.5, Ghaem Magami 2.5 drew S Satyapragyan 2.5, Ganguly 2.5 bt Parikh 2, Kidambi 2.5 bt Neelotpal 1.5, Tejas Bakre 2.5 bt CJ Arvind 1.5, Al Sayed Mohammed 2 bt Arjun Tiwari 1, John Paul Gomez 2 bt Du Shan 1, Enamul Hussian bt Taher Mullajumaa 1, Said Rakhimbov 2 bt Mathew Santor 1, Syed Hassan 2 bt Vikramaditya Kamble 1, Mahesh Chandran 2 bt Soumya Rajan Mishra 0.5, M Satyajit 1.5 bt Himanshu Kumar 0.5, Anton Filippov 1 bt Pratmesh Mokal 0, Annaberdiev Meillis 1 bt Akshay Kore 0.

Girls: Tania 3 bt Elena Levushkina 2, Humpy 3 bt Nisha Mohta 2, Meenakshi 1.5 drew Yu Ting 2, R Aarthi 2 bt Swathi Ghate 1, JE Kavitha 2 bt Y Pratibha 1, Chauthi Ngoc Giao 1.5 bt Anupama Konare 0.5, Beverly Mendoza 1.5 bt Madina Duisenova 0.5, Pazha Sivakame 1 bt Feroza Haque Choudary 0.