Rohit in sole lead
at World Youth Chess
India's G Rohit scored his seventh victory on the trot and shot into sole lead in the
under-14 boys' section of the World Youth chess championships, being played in Heraklion, Greece.
Rohit defeated Amin Bassen of Egypt in the eighth round to tally seven points and looks a clear favourite to win the crown if his onboard exploits are any indication.
Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna settled for a quick draw in the
eighth round against International Master Shahriyaz Mamedyarov
of Azerbaijan and was joined by Grandmaster Ferenc Berkes of
Hungary at the top of the table on 6.5 points.
Harikrishna, quite surprisingly, did not try very hard
with his white pieces against Mamedyarov and signed the peace
treaty after just nine moves when his English opening failed
to get him a desirable advantage.
I Ramya Krishna also maintained her joint lead in the
under-12 girls' section with a draw against Maria Ignacz of
Hungary. Ramya Krishna took her tally to 6.5 points with this
draw and leads alongside Ignacz, Anna Muzychuk of
Ukraine and Tan Zhongyi of China.
In joint fifth place is fancied second seed
Dronavalli Harika, who came back into the reckoning for top honours
with a facile victory over Pham Bich Ngoc of Vietnam. Harika
now has six points in her kitty.
Rohit was at his technical best in cruising past Bassen,
who played with the white pieces. Once in to a dynamically
balanced middle game, Rohit uncorked a brilliant exchange that
caught Bassen completely off balance.
Going for the kill with his excellently placed rook and
minor pieces, Rohit invaded the opposition camp and made
dangerous threats. Bassen called it a day when his king came
under mortal danger.
Former world under-12 champion Deep Sengupta fought back
after his previous round loss in the under-14 boys section and
scored a crushing victory over Alexander Fier of Brazil.
Sengupta, playing white, capitalised on a rather lacklustre
play by his opponent and had little troubles in moving to the
six points bracket.
Indian hopes suffered a setback in the under-10 boys'
section when Parimarjan Negi blew away a winning position
against Sanan Sugirov of Russia. Playing white Parimarjan
comprehensively won a pawn in the middle game arising out of a
Sicilian defence but blundered in the final stages of the game
and failed to drive home the advantage.
The section is led by top seed Safarli Eltaz who scored
yet another resounding victory in the event, getting past Ding
Liren of China. Safarli is now on 7.5 points from his eight
outings while Parimarjan is on 5.5.