India Sweeps Commonwealth Chess

Port Elizabeth, South Africa: Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta won the Commonwealth Chess Championship after settling for a draw with Indian national title-holder G. Akash in the 11th and final round that concluded here at the Boardwalk. (Photo: Officials and players at the venue)

Putting a solid performance right through the tournament, Gupta scored nine points out of a possible eleven and had the best tiebreak score to win the gold medal in the championship that also incorporated the South African International open.

Expectedly it was a clean sweep of medals as veteran Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua got the silver medal and Grandmaster M.R. Lalith Babu won the bronze.

Among women, Soumya Swaminathan won the silver medal, while national women’s champion Mary Ann Gomes won the bronze. The gold in this category went to International Master Jovanka Houska of England.

The Indians also swept the junior section with G. Akash winning the gold, Sahaj Grover getting silver and Rakesh Kulkarni securing the bronze medal. Kulkarni also won the South African open blitz championship. (PTI)

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World Team: Soumya, Gomes win Bronze

The Champions Ukraine: (From left) Mariya Muzychuk, Inna Gaponenko, Anna Ushenina, Kateryna Lahno, Natalia Zhukova.

India finished fifth in the world women’s team chess championship at Astana, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday. Seeded sixth in the 10-team event, India scored nine match points from nine rounds. Ukraine, comprising Anna Ushenina, Kateryno Lahno, Mariya Muzychuk, Inna Gaponenko and Natalia Zhukova, won the title with 16 points. China finished runner-up, while Russia was third with 13. Reigning women's world chess champion Anna Ushenina now also holds the title of the World Team Champion along with her compatriots.

(Top right) Mary Ann Gomes and (below left) Soumya Swaminathan with their Bronze medals for Boards 4 and 5 at the Astana Women's World Team Chess Championship 2013. Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich.

India, represented by Mary Ann Gomes, Eesha Karvade, Nisha Mohota, Padmini Rout and Soumya Swaminathan, lost to China 1.5-2.5 in the final round. In the other matches, Russia and Ukraine drew 2-2, France blanked Turkey 3.5-0.5, Georgia beat Kazakhstan 2.5-1.5 and United States and Romania drew 2-2.

For the individual boards, Mary Ann Gomes and Soumya Swaminathan won the Bronze medals on Board 4 and Board 5 respectively.

Final Standings
1. Ukraine 16 2. China 15 3. Russia 13 4. Georgia 12 5. India 9 6. USA 8 7. Kazakhstan 6 8. Romania 6 9. France 4 10. Turkey 1

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Indian Girls Begin Campaign at Women's World Team Chess in Astana Today

The Indian team (from left) Soumya Swaminathan, Padmini Rout, Nisha Mohota, Eesha Karavade, Mary Ann Gomes. 

The opening ceremony of the Women's World Team Chess Championship took place at the Duman Hotel in Astana, Kazakhstan on Saturday after a press conference. FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov welcomed all participants and guests and awarded diplomas to players from the team of Kazakhstan - Guliskhan Nakhbayeva and Dinara Saduakassova. Both had recently complete their WGM norms.

The Chief Arbiter of the tournament Takis Nikolopoulos conducted the ceremony of drawing of lots. Each team was invited to the stage and the top player was proposed to choose a flower with the number. The top seed of Ukrainian team Katerina Lahno luckily chose the number one, although Ukrainian team doesn’t leave the first rank. Each of the players got flowers from the organizers. Opening Ceremony Photo Gallery

Indian chess fans can watch the games live from 2.30 pm at the official wesbite with comments by GM Sergey Shipov and WGM Anna Sharevich: http://worldchess.kz/en/online.

The pairings of the first round:Ukraine - India
Romania - Russia
Kazakhstan - USA
Turkey - Georgia
China - France

The board pairings of Round 1 for India are as follows:

Lahno, Kateryna - Karavade, Eesha
Ushenina, Anna - Mohota, Nisha
Muzychuk, Mariya - Padmini, Rout
Gaponenko, Inna - Gomes, Mary Ann

During the press-conference it was announced that Kazakhstan has another ambitious plan - to host the World Chess Olympiad in 2018. Anna Ushenina, reigning women's world champion, spoke about the expectations of the Ukrainian team: “Every team wants to win first place in Astana. Our team - is not an exception. I will try to show the best result. In such tournaments there are no weak opponents.” 

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