Defending champion Grandmaster Koneru Humpy scored a thumping victory over Tian Tian of China and moved into the joint lead, on 3.5 points, after the fourth round in the 19th World juniors girls' chess championship in Panaji, Goa, on Wednesday.

Overnight leaders Nadezhda Kosintseva of Russia and Chinese Wang Yue were involved in a hard-fought draw after
a safety first approach by Kosintseva, who played white.

Apart from these two and Humpy, Tatiana Kosintseva of Russia and Zhao Xue of China share the top position.

Amongst the other Indian girls aspiring for International Women Master and Women Grandmaster norms, Dronavalli Harika suffered a setback at the hands of Makka Ioulia of Greece while Asian junior girls' champion Tania Sachdev played out a quick draw against S Zjgangirova of Kazakhstan.

Humpy displayed superb form to outclass Tian Tian. The Petroff defence opening usually has the reputation of obtaining a draw result or at best a level position for the black player but today it served Humpy in the most prolific manner. Right after the initial stage of the game, Humpy obtained a positional advantage thanks to a rather lackluster handling of the opening by her opponent.

Steady development ensued for both the players and Humpy was the first to strike in the centre that gave her huge space to manoeuvre her forces. Looking for counter play, Tian went for a dubious king side attack and was soon punished as Humpy invaded the king side with her Queen and Rook. The rest was easy.