Defending champion Koneru Humpy was held to a draw by seventh seed Zhao Xue of China in the third round of World Junior chess championships in Panaji, Goa, on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, she beat Matras Ag in the second round to register her second consecutive victory.

Russia's N Kosintseva and Wang Yu of China share the lead with three points in the girls' section, having won all their three rounds.

Xue, playing black, obtained equality in the middle game in a queen's gambit decline as Humpy tried hard sacrificing a pawn. But she could not break the solid defence of Xue and finally settled for a draw when the position reached a minor piece and equal pawn ending after 59 moves.

In another third round match, D Harika (2.5) was also held to a draw by Russian P Natalia while Tania Sachdev (2) split points with Cindy Tsai of USA.

In the boys' section, Luke McShane of England shares the lead with Smerdon David of Austrailia, with three wins after
three rounds.

Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna took his tally to 2.5 points from three rounds when he beat Spain's Perez Candelario in the third round. Also on 2.5 points was GM Surya Sekar Ganguly, who beat Romania's Vioreanu Bogdan.

Eighth seed McShane scored an impressive win over Wojtaszek R of Poland in the third round in a rarely played
Trompovesky variation to share the lead with David, who upset Sandeepan Chanda in a wild battle of centre counter gambit.

Earlier, Humpy, who had overcome compatriot Anori Mehul Shah easily on the opening day of the tournament on Monday, outplayed her Matras Agnieszka in the second round in 43 moves. But, overall, it was a disappointing round for the Indian girls, as Eesha Karvade, Ketaki Kulkami, M Kasturi and Anoori M Shah lost their matches.

However, D Harika comfortably outwitted compatriot Koneru Chandra while Y Pratibha beat compatriot Nabeel Farheen to earn the full point.

Asian junior Champion Tania Sachdev played well to manage a draw against Tian Tian of China.

The Chinese girl, who played a closed variation of Sicilian defence, got an advantage in the middle game, but squandered it as Sachdev fought back to split the point.

In the boys' section, putting behind the first round disappointment where he drew with compatriot Akash Thakur, newly-crowned Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly registered a fine victory against Dmitry Poliakov of Belarus.

Pendyala Harikrishna, Sandipan Chanda also carved out facile wins while C J Deepan suffered a defeat at the hands of Vladimir Potkin of Russia.

In another tie, top seed GM Bu Xiangzhi failed to make the most from a middle game advantage to split the point with C Perez of Spain.