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Journalism of Courage
India won the World Youth Chess Olympiad, their first team title in a world event, for a historic triumph at Singapore today. On the final day, India posted 28 points to score a 3-1 win against Singapore, edging out Hungary in a well-contested 10-round team event.
Top seeds Hungary had a chance to snatch the title away if they had scored a 4-0 win over Indonesia on the last day of the meet. However, they failed in this attempt when Woman FIDE Master Irine Sukandar shocked Tamas Fodor of Hungary. Thus, Hungary could only manage a 3-1 win to finish second with 27.5 points.
The Indian team got off to a good start, defeating the United States 4-0, and following that up by beating top seeds Hungary 3.5-0.5. The only black mark was a 1-3 loss to the Philippines in the seventh round. Thereafter, the boys won the last three matches to win the title 28/40. India won seven matches, drew two and lost one, according to information received here.
The Indian scorers were B Adhiban (7.5/10), R Ashwath (4.5/8), S Nitin (7/10), Shyam Nikhil (5.5/7) and Swayams Mishra (3.5/5). Besides the team gold and title, Adhiban of Chennai had the third best result of all players in the top board. Shyam Nikhil had the second best result in the fourth board and Swayams Mishra had the second best score of all players in the reserve fifth board.
“We were sure of a medal from this competition this time, but the boys did well for the gold,” said DV Sundar, a delighted Secretary of the AICF.
The team returns to Chennai on Sunday morning. B Adhiban will be going straight from Singapore to Abu Dhabi to compete in the Open tournament, where he will be seeking Grandmaster norms. The team, accompanied by coach Raizada, was trained by K Visweswaran of Chennai.
Final placings: 1) India (gold) 28/40, 2) Hungary (silver) 27.5, 3) Philippines (bronze) 25.5, 4) Uzbekistan 24.5.
