Tigran on the prowl, shares lead with Hari

Watch out for Armenian Tigran L Petrosian. He is on a roll and may well be on the way to his first major international title in the World Ju...

Watch out for Armenian Tigran L Petrosian. He is on a roll and may well be on the way to his first major international title in the World Junior Chess Championship at Hotel Casino here. On Sunday, he bettered top seed Ferenc Berkes of Hungary, rated almost 100 points above him in the FIDE list, and shared the lead with India’s Pentyala Harikrishna with four points each.

Hari accounted for Hans Tikkanen of Sweden from the black side on the second board and is slated to meet Petrosian on Monday in the fifth round in what could turn out to be the big clash of the tournament.

Petrosian played the black side of the Tarrasch Defence and jumped at the chance that came his way after white’s 16th move, a pawn sacrifice in the king-rook file. Everything started happening after this move as black sacrificed a rook on the kingside, regrouped his queen, rook and bishop for a kingside onslaught and then promoted his queen-pawn.

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Faced with all kinds of threats, including a mating attack, the top seed resigned after 40 moves.

Hari accounted for Hans Tikkanen of Sweden from the black side of Catalan Opening in 40 moves. Hari got a slight advantage out of the opening and put pressure on white. By move 30, Tikkanen had to sacrifice an exchange and after that couldn’t get out of the rut and his pieces were tied down. ‘‘He had the bishop pair but that was not enough,’’ said Hari who promoted his queenside passer to register his fourth win in the event.

Deepan Chakravarty caused a minor upset, beating Grandmaster Timur Gareyev of Uzbekistan in 30 moves in a Sicilian Defence in the fourth round. Deepan found a mating net with the queen, rooks and bishop on the kingside.

Koneru Humpy outwitted Joannes Manyedi of South Africa in the fourth round in a Queen’s Indian Defence game. The Indian GM got space advantage and converted it into material in the end.

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In the girls section, Joanna Majdan (Poland) and Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) split the point after an exciting battle of sacrifices. Majdan, Ushenina and Zhang Jilin of China share the lead with 3.5 points each after four rounds.

‘Capa is the best ever, Anand among the present lot’

		Tigran Petrosian of Armenia has no doubts as to who his chess idol is. His favourite-ever is former world champion Capablanca of Cuba ‘‘but I think Anand is the best player in the world right now.” The Armenian, who came for the World junior championship as a rank outsider, was ranked way below 20 initially when his rating was not identified correctly. ‘‘That is because there are at least four Tigran Petrosians in the FIDE list,’’ says Petrosian, who was promoted to No 4 on the first day of the event. On India and Indians, he says, ‘‘I have not played many Indians. I like the hotel here (the Casino) and the surroundings. But I have not seen the city. And if we eat the same food for 15 days, it will be boring.’’

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