Harikrishna, Deepan bag bronze

Rasht Iran, May 17: Pentala Harikrishna and Deepan Chakravarthy of India bagged a bronze medal each as the Asian Age Group Chess Champions...

Rasht Iran, May 17: Pentala Harikrishna and Deepan Chakravarthy of India bagged a bronze medal each as the Asian Age Group Chess Championship concluded here today. Harikrishna won the third place in the under-14 boys8217; section in a tie-break while Deepan emerged a clear third in the under-12 boys8217; category. India8217;s third entry in the age-group competition, Lairenjam Mahesh, finished sixth in the under-10 category.

Top seed M Haddad of Iran won the under-14 boys8217; title with 6.5 points after his 50-move draw in an irregular King-pawn ending against Al-Tamimi of Qatar in the ninth and last round. Moradi Ehsan of Iran bagged the silver with six points after a quick draw with Radjapov of Uzbekistan on the second board. Harikrishna prevented an Iranian sweep by scoring a 37-move win over Enkh Amagalan of Mongolia in the French defence exchange variation. Ehsan, Harikrishna and Mousavian Iran, finished with six points each and were 2 to 4 in that order.

Deepan Chakravarthy, who showed a lot of promise andcould have even won the under-12 title had he taken advantage of all the chances in the earlier rounds, scored a neat 26-move win over Sajedi Y of Iran in the Philidor defence. After exchanging Queens early, Deepan, with black pieces, kept the bishop pair and raised a good blockade against the white pieces. On move 20, Sajedi made a dubious knight move and six moves later Deepan trapped one of white8217;s pieces.

A Filipov of Uzbekistan, who struggled against Deepan, totalled a remarkable 8.5 points from nine rounds to earn the gold while S J Alavi of Iran came second with seven points after his quick win over teammate H Tahmassebi. Deepan tallied 6.5 points.

L Mahesh, who had an outside chance to be among the medals, lost out in a Sicilian battle with D Khamrakulov of Uzbekistan in the last round. Mahesh lost his Queen to a knight fork and resigned after 38 moves. Mahesh, with five points, was sixth behind Erdene G of Mongolia 7.5 points, Khamrakulov 7, Omid Nourouzi of Iran 6.5, Pham Thash Tung ofVietnam 6 and Utegaliyev of Kazakhstan 5.5. Unlike in the under-12 section, the tie-breaker was not needed in this category to decide the medal winners.