Abhimanyu Puranik claims silver in World junior chess

Grandmaster Abhimanyu Puranik scored over Armenia’s Aram Hakobyam to claim the silver medal behind top seeded Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo in the 11-round World junior chess championship here on Saturday.

Puranik topped a three-way tie at 8.5 points, one less than Maghsoodloo, who ensured the title with a round to spare. In the final round, the champion lost to Russia’s Andrey Esipenko.

Grandmaster Abhimanyu Puranik scored over Armenia’s Aram Hakobyam to claim the silver medal behind top seeded Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo in the 11-round World junior chess championship here on Saturday.

Puranik topped a three-way tie at 8.5 points, one less than Maghsoodloo, who ensured the title with a round to spare. In the final round, the champion lost to Russia’s Andrey Esipenko.

The medal for Puranik was the only silver lining for an otherwise disappointing performance from the strong Indian contingent. Puranik, seeded 23, stole a march over compatriots like fourth seed M. Karthikeyan, 10th seed Aravindh Chithambaram and 13th seed S. L. Narayanan who tallied an identical 7.5 points. The second best Indian finisher was 40th seed Harsha Bharathakoti who took the ninth spot with 7.5 points owing to superior tie-break score.

Among the girls, where Russia’s untitled Alexandra Maltsevskaya, rated 2234, caused the biggest surprise by topping a two-way tie at 8.5 points from 11 rounds, V. Varshini was the best Indian finisher at the 13th spot with seven points.