Ganguly, Harikrishna trail the leader

Draws were the order of the day on top boards. Setting themselves up accordingly, Indian Grandmasters Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Pendyala Harikrishna agreed to split the point and continue to trail the leader after the seventh round in the World Junior chess championship in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan.

As a result of peace signed on the top six boards, the lead positions remain unchanged. Kadir Guseimov of Azerbaijan stays at the top spot after taking his tally to 5.5 points.

Ganguly remained in the next lot of five players with 5 points in his bag while Harikrishna took his score to 4.5.

Six more rounds remain to be played in this 13-round championship which will decide the best player in the world under 20 years of age.

In the girls' championship, Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia maintained her clean slate with a hard-fought victory over Dronavalli Harika. The other Indian contenders, Eesha Karvade and Asian junior girls' champion Tania Sachdev carved out important victories to join Harika in joint second position on 3.5 points apiece along with the Azerbaijani trio of Zeinab Mamedjarova, Aytaj Ismailova and Afag Khudaverdieva.

Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan, who played some unusual moves in one of the main variations of the Petroff defence, surprised Ganguly in the opening. However, the Indian held on to his own and got a better position with thematic manoeuvres.

But the game never really left the boundaries of a draw. Subsequent exchanges led the game to a queen and rook endgame and the draw was agreed to on the 43rd move.

Harikrishna played an unorthodox variation of Queens Gambit accepted with black pieces and tricked Marcin Dziuba of Poland in the middle game to net a pawn. However, with his pair of bishops against double knights, the Pole neutralised Hari's advantage and the truce was signed on move 58.

Harika lost an interesting endgame against Nana. Playing black, Harika faced the Torre attack and fell under pressure after an erroneous plan. Nana won a pawn forcibly but had quite a few technical problems to solve and it took 86 moves for the Georgian to convert her material advantage into a full point.

This was Nana's fifth successive victory in the championship.

Tania got a level position out of the opening against Shahana Agaeva of Azerbaijan but she lost track midway. Luck, however, proved to be on Tania's side as Shahana blundered herself into a checkmating web.

Eesha Karvade rolled over the defences of Morales Mendoza Luciana while Saheli Nath took a draw with Meihriban Shukurova.

mportant results (Indians unless specified):

Round 7 Boys: Kadir Guseinov (5.5, Aze) drew Alexander Zubov (5, Ukr); Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov (5, Aze) drew Izoria Zviad (5, Geo); S S Ganguly (5) drew Vugar Gashimov (5, Aze); Marcin Dziuba (4.5, Pol) drew P Harikrishna(4.5); Dmitry Schneider (4.5) USA drew Kritz Leonid (4.5, Ger); Jan Werle (4.5, Ned) drew Sergei Azarov (4.5, Blr); Levan Pantsulai (4.5, Geo) beat Rustem Sadykov (4, Kaz); Rauf Mamedov(4.5, Aze) beat Dimitros Mastrovasilis (3.5, Gre); Kanep Meelis (4.5, Est) beat S Arun Prasad (3.5); Giga Kuparadze(4.5, Geo) beat P Magesh Chandran (3.5); Andrei Murariu (3.5, Rom) drew J Deepan Chakkravarthy (3.5); Marco Pacheco (4, Per) beat Abhijeet Gupta (3); Steven Geinaert (3, Bel) lost to G Rohit (4).

Round 5 Girls: Nana Dzagnidze (5,Geo) beat Dronavalli Harika (3.5); Zeinab Mamedjarova (3.5, Aze) beat Cristina Calotescu (3, Rom); Aytaj Ismailova (3.5, Aze) beat Maria Sergeeva (2.5, Kaz); Meihriban Shukurova (3, Aze) drew Saheli Nath (3); Shahana Agaeva (2.5, Aze) lost to Tania Sachdev (3.5); Eesha Karavade (3.5) beat Morales Mendoza Luciana (Per); Nargiz Mammadova (2, Aze) lost to Afag Khudaverdieva (3.5, Aze); Martina Valickova (3, Cze) beat Ekaterina Ubiennykh (2.5, Rus); Laman Rzaeva (2, Aze) lost to Zehra Topel (3, Tur); Mahima Rajmohan (1.5) lost to Makka Ioulia (2.5, Gre).