Tag: Junior

Praggnanandhaa’s potential comes to the fore in World junior chess championship.

Source – thehindu.com

R. Praggnanandhaa never ceases to surprise. The ease with which the 14-year-old sacrifices his rooks for bishops, like he did during his wins in the second and fourth rounds of the World junior chess championship, underline his deep reading of the given positions.

After being shockingly held by England’s Ravi Haria in the morning round, Praggnanandhaa unleashed a rare twin rook-sacrifice before putting the finishing touches with his queen and bishop-pair to end Mongolian Dambasuren Batsuren’s resistance in 44 moves.

With seven of the top eight boards ending in draws, Praggnanandhaa joined Ukraine’s Evgeny Shtembuliak and Spain’s Ruiz Miguel Santos in the lead at 3.5 points from four rounds.

Walkover

In fact, the double-round day saw the stronger players recover in varying degrees from the setbacks of the last two days. There was also an unusual ‘walkover’ from the 11th seeded Iranian Aaryan Gholami when pitted against Israel’s Alexander Zlatin in the fourth round. Since there have been many occasions in chess a contest between players of these two countries have remained non-starters, Gholami took nothing to chance and even produced a medical certificate to prove his ‘indisposition’.

Among the girls, Arpita Mukherjee blew away a golden chance to win and take the lead against teammate N. Priyanka but settled for a draw.

Altantuya ahead

Earlier, Mongolian Boldbaatar Altantuya took the lead with four straight wins. The victorious Rakshitta Ravi (3.5) moved to the joint second place while Praggnanandhaa’s sister R. Vaishali (3), seeded five, was held by Russia’s Elizaveta Solozhenkina. Vantika Agarwal and Divya Deshpande drew; so did Mrudul Dehankar to reach three points.

Important results:

Open: Fourth round: Ruiz Miguel Santos (Esp, 3.5) drew with Evgeny Shtembuliak (Ukr, 3.5); Semen Khanin (Rus, 3) drew with M. Karthikeyan (3); Shant Sargsyan (Arm, 3) drew with Ravi Haria (Eng, 2); R. Praggnanandhaa (3.5) bt Dambasuren Batsuren (Mgl, 2.5); P. Iniyan (3) drew with Zhandos Agmanov (Kaz, 3); Dmitrij Kollars (Ger, 2.5) drew with Sammed Shete (2.5); Aronyak Ghosh (2.5) drew with Harsha Bharathakoti (2.5).

Third round: Haria (2.5) drew with Praggnanandhaa (2.5); M. Karthikeyan (2.5) bt Aaryan Varshney (2); R.K. Srihari (2) drew with Kollars (2): Vid Dobrovoljc (Slo, 1.5) lost to P. Iniyan (2.5). Aditya Mittal (2) bt Arno Sterck (Bel, 1); Aravindh Chithambaram (1.5) bt Amir Ghaazi Mohd Saprin (Mas, 1).

Girls: Fourth round: Boldbaatar Altanutuya (Mgl, 4) bt Michelle Katkov (Isr, 3); N. Priyanka (3.5) drew with Arpita Mukherjee (3.5); Elizaveta Solozhenkina (Rus, 3) drew with R. Vaishali (3); Vantika Agarwal (3) drew with Divya Deshmukh (3); Mrudul Dehankar (3) drew with Gabriela Antova (Bul, 3); Rakshitta Ravi (3.5) bt V. Toshali (2.5).

Third round: Dinara Dordzhieva (Rus, 2) lost to Priyanka (3); Mrudul (2.5) drew with Rakshitta (2.5); Arpita (3) bt Marian Avetsyan (Arm, 2); Vaishali bt Saloni Sapale (1.5); Divya (2.5) bt G. Harshita (1.5).

Junior doctors in Jharkhand protest against Bengal impasse, OPD boycott hits patients

Source: hindustantimes.com

Patients in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad had a harrowing time on Friday after junior doctors in the three government-run medical colleges and hospitals boycotted OPD services in a show of solidarity with the protesting doctors in West Bengal. Junior doctors across West Bengal are on strike since June 10, protesting against an alleged assault on a medical intern by relatives of an 87-year-old patient who died in Kolkata’s NRS hospital premises.

Junior doctors boycotted OPD duties at Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH) and Patliputra Medical College Hospital (PMCH) and demanded that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee take action against the culprits immediately. However, senior doctors across the state attended to patients, wearing black badges.

The massive impact of junior doctors’ boycotting their duties was felt at RIMS Ranchi where long queues of patients were seen at all OPDs. Patients particularly had a difficult time at medicine, surgery, skin, eye and orthopaedic OPDs. Some of the patients were seen returning from OPDs due to the seemingly unending queues.

Govind Mahato, a patient from Powarganj in Lohardaga town, about 70 kms from Ranchi, visited RIMS but returned due to the commotion in the hospital. “I had no information about the sudden strike of doctors. I came here for the medical examination of my ailing grandson but had to return without treatment,” said Mahato.

Malti Murmu (45), a resident of Namkum in Ranchi, failed to consult a doctor despite waiting till noon at the gynaecology OPD. “The hospital should not have registered my name in the morning if the doctors were on strike. After being registered, I thought the doctor would check patients in the OPD, but they wasted my time and money,” she said.

Before beginning their boycott, junior doctors at RIMS staged a street play on the role of doctors in providing health services in the campus and sought cooperation from all teachers for their OPD boycott. Junior doctors also wore helmets and staged a sit-in protest in front of RIMS director Dr DK Singh’s chamber.

“We strongly condemn the attitude of Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. We would be compelled to intensify our agitation if all the culprits are not arrested soon,” said Dr Ajit Prasad, JDA president.

Junior doctors at the Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Science (RINPAS) in Kanke also boycotted OPD services in solidarity with the JDA.

OPD did not function after 10.30 am at PMCH Dhanbad due to the boycott call by junior doctors. At MGMMCH, OPD did not function after 11 am. IMA Jamshedpur secretary Dr Mritunjay Kumar Singh said many doctors in private nursing homes also skipped their OPD duties in solidarity with protesting junior doctors.

Patients at Bokaro General Hospital (BGH) had also returned unattended from OPD as junior doctors boycotted services.

In the evening, the Jharkhand chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA), Jharkhand Health Service Association (JHSA) and JDA took out a protest march from RIMS.

“It is unfortunate that doctors who serve patients day and night were thrashed and the government did not act properly against culprits”, said Dr Pradeep Kumar Singh, IMA secretary.