A Swiss event, the world junior championship was held from Aug. 2 to 16 in Gaziantep, the sixth largest city and one of the major economic centers in Turkey.
England’s GM David Howell was one the tournament favorites, but he lost to Gupta in the 13th and final round on Aug. 15 — as India marked the anniversary of the end of British colonial rule.
Howell finished in a tie for third to seventh places with Germany’s IM Arik Braun, Azerbaijan’s GM Eltaj Safarli, Egypt’s GM Bassem Amin and China’s WGM Hou Yifan, who chose to play against the boys instead of contesting the girl’s title.
A freshman B.A. English honors student of the Indira Gandhi National Open University in Delhi, Gupta has a sponsor — Bharat Petroleum. He became a grandmaster last year and trains with Vishal Sareen. Like other chess players who live in India, “Anand is my favorite.” Asked if there is any chess book and a player that had a profound influence on him, Gupta said: “When I started playing chess, I heard the name of Harikrishna a lot as a player. When I was young I was just used to the Informator.”
His next goal is to reach the 2600 Elo rating this year.
Game of the week. Howell, Gupta and Negi had 9 points going into the last round. But Howell was the only one playing with the white pieces, says IM Malcolm Pein, “and a seventh straight win with white looked a possibility in the opening as Howell emerged with an edge. However, instead of trying to exploit a superior pawn structure Howell, who had consumed a huge amount of time early on, went for a pawn storm on the kingside in the absence of most of his pieces and Gupta made his advantage in mobility count as Howell’s king became exposed.”
Here is their decisive game as annotated by Pein.
White: D. Howell
Black: A. Gupta
Giuoco Piano
World Junior Championship, Gaziantep 2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 0–0 6.0–0 d5 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.Re1 Bg4 9.Nbd2 Nb6 10.Bb5 Bd6 11.Ne4 Qd7 12.h3 Bh5 13.g4 (13.Ng3!? looks promising after Bg6 14.Nxe5 Bxe5 15.Rxe5 Bxd3 16.Bxc6 bxc6 17.Nh5!? or 13.Ng3 Bxf3 14.Qxf3 Nd4 15.cxd4 Qxb5 16.Nf5 exd4? 17.Bh6) 13…Bg6 14.Nh4 Be7 15.Nxg6 hxg6 16.Ng3 Bd6 17.h4 a6 18.Bxc6 bxc6 19.h5 gxh5 20.Nxh5 f5! 21.Ng3 fxg4 22.Re4 Rf3 23.Qb3+ Nd5 24.Qc4 (24.c4 Bc5 25.cxd5 Bxf2+ 26.Kg2 cxd5 27.Re2 Bxg3) 24…Raf8 25.Rxg4 R3f4 26.Bxf4 exf4 27.Rg5 fxg3 28.fxg3 Qe7 29.Qg4 Ne3 30.Qh5 Qf6 31.Kh1 Nf1 32.Qg4 Qh6+ 0–1.
Puzzler.
White — pawns on b3, b4, h2; Qa8, Ke1, Be4, Ne7
Black — pawns on a5, b5, e5, g5; Na7, Bb6, Ke3
White to play and mate in three moves.
Send your answers to “64” c/o Marianas Variety, P.O. Box 500231, Saipan MP 96950. Our fax no. is 670-234-9271. You can also e-mail [email protected] or [email protected]
