Aswin and Padmini complete India’s ‘double’

Aswin and Padmini complete India’s ‘double’
Online edition of India’s National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 08, 2009

WORTHY CHAMPIONS: Aswin Jayaram retained his title while Padmini Rout emerged triumphant in the Asian junior chess championship in Colombo on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: As expected, Aswin Jayaram and Padmini Rout completed India’s golden ‘double’ for the third successive year by claiming the honours in the Asian junior chess championship at Colombo on Tuesday.

Aswin, with eight points from the nine-round competition, defended the title won in Chennai in December last year. In the final round, he drew with compatriot Shyam Sundar, silver medallist in the 2006 edition and bronze medallist in 2007. The title also gave Aswin a nine-game Grandmaster norm.

Kazakhstan’s Amanov Zhanibek (seven points) prevented an Indian sweep of medals by taking the silver medal. National junior champion Lalith Babu, who tied for the title with Aswin last year, settled for the bronze medal. Zhanibek’s final-round victory over Iranian Asghar Golizadeh kept him half a point ahead of Babu.

Among the girls, the World (under-14) champion Padmini Rout emerged a worthy winner by scoring 8.5 points from nine rounds. Padmini, silver medallist in 2007, drew only with last year’s bronze medallist Bhakti Kulkarni in the eighth round and won all her other games. Padmini was also awarded a nine-game Woman Grandmaster norm.

However, the Indian girls failed to repeat their medal sweep of the last three editions. In the final round, Iran’s Mitra Hejazipour defeated teammate Minoo Asgarizadeh to comfortably claim the silver, a point ahead of top seed and National junior girls’ champion Soumya Swaminathan.

The results (involving Indians): Open: Ninth round: Shyam Sundar (6) drew with Aswin Jayaram (8); Lalith Babu (6.5) bt Chua Zhang Yuan Terry (Sin, 5.5); Anwesh Upadhyaya (5) lost to Homayoon Toufighi (Iri, 6); N. Srinath (6) bt Ali Faghirnavaz (Iri); Sumant Subramanium (Mas, 5) lost to Vishnu Prasanna (6); K.R.K.C. Subasinghe (Sri, 4.5) lost to B. Adhiban (5.5); P. Karthikeyan (5.5) bt Semetey Tologontegin (Kgz, 4.5); A.A.C.B. Amarasinghe (Sri, 4.5) lost to P. Krishna Saravana (5.5); Shreyansh Dalia (5) bt Lahiru Munasinghe (Sri, 4).

Eighth round: Aswin bt Lalith; Asghar Golizadeh (Iri) bt Karthikeyan; Saravana lost to Shyam;Ali Faghirnavaz (Iri) drew with Vishnu; Semetey Tologontegin (Kgz) drew with Adhiban; Pourina Darini (Iri) lost to Srinath; Upadhyaya bt Daklia.

Indians’ standings: 1. Aswin, 3. Lalith, 5-8, Srinath, Shyam, Vishnu, Karthikeyan; 10-11. Saravana, Adhiban, 15. Upadhyaya, 18, Daklia.

Girls: Ninth round: Navindi Abeywardana (Sri, 4) lost to Padmini Rout (8.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (6.5); Bhakti Kulkarni (6) bt N. Raghavi (4.5); Dinushki Premanath (Sri, 4) lost to P. Uthra (5); Vimasha Premasiri (Sri, 2) lost to R. Preethi (5).

Eighth round: Padmini drew with Bhakti; Uthra lost to Mitra Hejazipour (Iri); Preethi lost to Soumya; N. Raghavi drew with Kiran.

Indians’ standings: 1. Padmini, 3-5. Soumya, Bhakti, Kiran, 7-8. Preethi, Uthra, 10. Raghvi.

Source: http://www.hinduonnet.com