Humpy suffers shock defeat

Overnight joint leader Koneru Humpy suffered a shock defeat against unheralded Gu Xiaobing of China in the fourth round of the World Juniors chess championship in Athens on Monday.

The Woman Grandmaster, who conceded her board in 53 moves, has now three points from four matches.

However, it proved to be a good day for the rest of the Indian contingent. International Woman Master S Meenakshi upset second seed IWM Korbut Ekaterina of Russia to tally as many points as Humpy.

Double Woman Grandmaster norm holder Aarthie Ramaswamy defeated Sanchez Castillo Sarai of Venezuela while Asian junior champion M Kasturi had to be content with a draw against Woman FIDE Master Ubiennykh Ekaterina of Russia.

In the boys' section P Magesh Chandran continued to impress and inched closer to his maiden International Master norm with a swift victory over higher ranked Joost Berkvens of The Netherlands.

Asian Junior bronze medallist K Rathnakaran too had a field day as he outplayed Bensenousi Isk of Greece while IM Tejas Bakre drew with Zambrana Oswaldo of Bolivia after a fierce middlegame. The only Indian boy to lose in the fourth round was M R Venkatesh who went down to Anton Korobov of Ukraine.

Aarthie did well to outclass Sarai in the Tarrasch variation of the French defence with white pieces. Choosing a variation favoured by her coach IM R B Ramesh, Aarthie sacrificed a pawn early in the opening and manoeuvred her queen to exert pressure on the kingside.

Sarai put up a good defence to get a piece for three pawns. Perfect defence might have led to a draw but the Russian failed to come up with precise moves. Aarthie eventually promoted her pawns and clinched the issue in 54 moves.

Magesh caught Joost off-guard in one of the rare variations of the Sicilian Classical defence. Playing white, Magesh was pleasantly surprised by a premature exchange sacrifice by his opponent early in the opening.

In a routine play, Chandran exchanged the queens at a convenient time to win the technical endgame in 36 moves.

It was a different story for Venkatesh who failed to match up to the tactical skills of Anton. Facing one of the less played variations of the Sicilian defence, Venkatesh allowed Anton a thematic exchange sacrifice that left his king in mortal danger. Skilful play by Anton forced a victory after 27 moves.