Asian-Jr Chess: Srinath Retains Title

International Master Narayanan Srinath has won the Asian Junior Chess title for the second time. The event was held in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Srinath had won last year in Tashkent in June 2012 along with a GM norm. He is also a former World Under-12 champion having won it at Belfort in France in 2005. Sahaj Grover was second and top seed GM Salem Saleh of UAE was third. Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam won the girls' section. India's WFM J Saranya was second. Defending champion Ivana Furtado of Goa ended the tournament in sixth place.

In the Asian Junior blitz chess, Anurag Mhamal and Sahaj Grover tied for first. Mhamal was declared champion on better tie-break score. Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie) won the Asian Junior girls blitz championship also.

Final placings:
Boys: 1 N Srinath (Ind) 8/9; 2 Sahaj Grover (Ind) 7; 3-6. Salem A.R. Saleh (UAE), Anurag Mhamal (Ind), Mehdi Hosseinpour (Iri), Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 6 each; 7 Debashis Das (Ind) 5.5…34 players.
Girls: 1 Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie) 7/9; 2-4. J Saranya (Ind), Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie), Diana Assaubayeva (Kaz) 6.5 each; 5-6. Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva (Uzb), Ivana Furtado (Ind) 6 each; 7-10. Rucha Pujari, Riya Savant (both Ind), Dorsa Derakhshani (Iri), Farida Khursanova (Uzb) 5.5 each….36 players.

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Asian Junior Chess: Srinath, Ivana Win Gold, Pujari Wins Bronze

Indian chess is showing the way to the world. N Srinath of India, Ivana Furtado and Rucha Pujari of India have won top honours at the Asian Junior Chess Championship in Tashkent. N Srinath won the gold in the open category and his first Grandmaster norm. Uzbekistan's Nikita Khoroshev was second and Kazakhstan's Ayan Akhmetov was third. 

 

The prize-winners at the Asian Junior Chess in Tashkent.

Also, Ivana Maria Furtado won the gold in the girl's section with Rucha Pujari picking up the bronze. Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam got the silver. Phung and Pujari were tied for second but the former won the silver on the basis of tiebreak points. Ivana has earlier won the World under-8 twice over. Ivana earned her WGM norm from the event. Pujari has recently won the women's tournament in Sangli, India.

Srinath won the event in the penultimate round itself. He has earlier won the under-12 world championship in Belfort in 2005. Srinath had been runner-up at the Asian Junior Chess in 2011 when, in Sri Lanka, another Indian Shyam Sundar had won the title.

Final placingsOpen: 1 IM N. Srinath 8/9; 2 FM Nikita Khoroshev (Uzb) 7; 3 Avan Akhmetov (Kaz) 6.5; 4 FM Aravindh Chithambaram 6; 6 Ankit Rajpara 5.5; 8 IM Swayams Mishra 5.5...31 players.
Girls: 1 WFM Ivana Furtado 7.5/9; 2-3. WIM Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie), WFM Rucha Pujari 6.5 each; 5 WFM J. Saranya 6; 6 P.V. Nandhidhaa 5.5; 7 WFM R. Bharathi 5; 13 WIM Pon N. Krithika 4.5; 14 CM Bhakti Kulkarni 4.5...23 players.

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