Negi

Istanbul: In contrasting results, woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev’s medal prospects got a major dent with a loss while D. Harika recorded an impressive win in the eighth round of the World Junior Chess Championship here.

Tania lost to IM Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany to remain on five points from a possible eight to be joint fourth, and Harika outclassed Bela Khotenashvili of Georgia to share third position, along with four others, with 5.5 points in her kitty.

WGMs Gu Xiaobing of China and Turkan Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, both on 6.5 points, shared the lead while Paehtz and Russian duo of Natalija Pogonina and Irina Vasilevich were joint second with 6 points apiece.

Five more rounds remain in the championship being played under Fide’s Swiss rules.

Eesha Karavade registered a smooth victory over Iranian Atousa Pourkashiyan, Kruttika Nadig drew with Zhang Jilin of China and N. Raghavi also drew with Janyl Tilenbaeva of Kyrgyzstan.

In the boys section, the Indians had a good day with no one ending on the losing side. Parimarjan Negi (4) remained on course for his elusive IM title after having to sign peace with Russian GM Igor Kursonov. S. Poobesh Anand (4.5) was once again impressive in holding GM Wen Yang of China.

There was a little change at the top of the tables as top seed GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan coasted to his seventh victory in the event, taking his tally to 7.5 points out of a possible 8.

Dutch GM Daniel Stellwagen is now Mamedyarov’s closest rival on 6 points.

GM norm holder Deep Sengupta, national junior champion G. N. Gopal and Akshat Khamparia notched up fine victories. Sengupta defeated Stefan Macak of Slovakia, Romanian Grecescu Gabriel-Andrei proved no match for Gopal and Khamparia defeated Tulay Berkay of Turkey.

Both Gopal and Sengupta are now on 4.5 points, while Khamparia is struggling with just 3 points to his credit. (PTI)