Bangalore :
Girish A Koushik showed why he’s one of Karnataka’s most promising chess players after clinching the silver medal for the second year running in the Under-16 (open) category at the 13th FIDE World Youth Chess Championships that concluded in Al-Ain, UAE, on Saturday.
Sharing the limelight with the Mysore chess prodigy was Bangalore boy Raghunandan K Srihari, who bagged the silver medal in the U-12 category. Indians trumped players from 123 countries to top the heap with eight medals (three gold, two silver and three bronze). India also secured top honours in the blitz format with 13 medals (five gold, four silver and four bronze).
Girish’s dominance in world chess has been well chronicled ever since he won the World Youth Under-10 Championship in Batumi, Georgia, seven years ago. Last year in Maribor, Slovenia, the 16-year-old was met with stiff opposition, but still finished second with eight wins, two defeats and a draw.
This time around, Girish was expecting the worst after heading to the Gulf nation underprepared for the tournament. “I had tests and was busy with my studies so I could not find time to prepare for the Worlds. I caught up with whatever I could at the airport lounges and in flight. Thankfully, everything went my way,” said the first year student of Sadvidya Composite PU College, Mysore.
With seven wins and four draws, the seventh-seeded Girish finished with nine points and was tied for gold with Tamil Nadu’s Murali Karthikeyan. But with no joint awards in store, Murali pipped Girish for gold with a slim tie-break margin (total points against other opponents) of 0.5.
Girish, however, was ecstatic. “If you look at it, both of us finished joint first, so I am happy with my performance. I finished with 50.0 (tie-break points) while Murali got 50.5. So it was a bit disappointing that I missed out on gold with such a small margin. But, I’m happy that I remained unbeaten in the 11 rounds. This is my best performance yet,” explained the International Master (IM) and Grandmaster (GM) norm holder.
Girish, whose biggest win came against higher-ranked Russian Kirill Alekseenko, will see his 2413 ELO rating rise by 17 points.
SILVER ON DEBUT
For Raghunandan, the U-12 silver will be one of his most cherished ever. Making his debut appearance at the Worlds this year, the soft-spoken tenth seeded youngster picked up eight wins, two defeats and a draw to finish with 8.5 points behind Armenia’s Aram Hakobyan.
“It feels great to win a medal in your first World championship,” Raghunandan said. “It was a very competitive field but I was ready for them. My match against American Marcus Miyasaka was one of my toughest wins. He had a middlegame error, which I immediately capitalized on and turned the contest in my favour,” said the seventh standard student of VVS Gandhi Centenary School, who trains under Ukrainian coach Alexander Vaysman.
United Karnataka Chess Association officials received the winners in Bangalore. The boys would be felicitated soon, it is learnt.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> Chess> Silver Medal / by Maxin Mathew, TNN / December 31st, 2013