Harikrishna extends lead

Sixteen-year old Deep Sengupta of India, who upset Grandmasters in previous rounds, suffered a defeat against Zhao Jun of China in the 11th round of the World Junior Chess  championship in Kochi.

Sengupta, a former under-12 world champion, lost to China's national junior champion in Dutch defense in 42 moves.

The Indian had upset top seed GM Ferenc Berkes of Hungary and third seed GM Evgeny Alekseev Vladimirovich of Russia in the earlier rounds.

Sengupta, seeded 24 here, was able to balance the position after the opening which he maintained upto the later part of the middle game. But the pin on his knight on the 'd' file turned to be eternal with the powerful minor piece position of the white, ending in Sengupta losing his knight on the 43rd move and he resigned immediately.

On top board, India's GM P Harikrishna moved a step closer to the title beating GM Jan Smeets of Netherlands in Slav defense in 50 moves. He is now leading with nine points.

In the World Girls Under-20 Championship, top seed WGM Ekaterina Korbut (Russia) and WGM Elisabeth Paehtz (Germany) are jointly leaders with 8.5 points after 11 rounds.

India's WIM Eesha Karavade surprised WGM Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) in Catalan opening in 55 moves. Ushenina, playing black, tried to attack the Kings side, but Eesha was able to hold the position and develop some advantage on the Queens side, resulting in her winning.

Zhao Jun with 8.5 point was in the second slot and GM Tigran Petrosian (Armenia) with eight points was in the third spot followed by Sengupta, GM Yuri Drozdovsky (Ukraine), Quezada Perez Yunieski (Cuba) and Evgeny Alekseev with 7.5 points in the fourth slot.

Harikrishna after 20 moves created a queen side pawn majority with a pair of bishops against a bishop and knight. Later on the 30th move Jan Smeets, playing black, sacrificed his 'g' pawn which was accepted by Hari.

In a pawn down ending black tried to turn it into an opposite colour bishop by capturing the white bishop with his knight. But instead of taking the knight, Hari pushed his pawn with a threat to promote and unable to prevent it, Smeets resigned.

India's GM Koneru Humpy settled for a draw against Zhe Quan of Canada.

In the Girls Under-20 section, Eesha Karavade, Ushenina, and Zhang Jilin of China are on second spot with 7.5 points each while Joanna Majdan (Poland) with 7 points was in the third spot.

Other winners include Zhang Jilin, Marties Bensdorp of Netherlands, Van Weersel Arlette of Netherlands, Marcela Colautti of Argentina and India's Saheli Nath, Nadig Kruttika, Tania Sachdev, P Sivasankari, C Delphin, Sandhya, Iswarya Shobana and Ramya Krishna.

After a day's rest tomorrow, the 12th round will be played on Monday.

Results: (Junior) Eleventh round: P Harikrishna (Ind-9) bt Jan Smeets (Neth-7); Zhao Jun (Chn-8.5) bt Deep Sengupta (Ind-7.5); Jianu Vlad-Cristian (Rom-7) lost to Tigran Petrosian (Arm-8); Yuri Drozdovsky (Ukr-7.5) drew with Quezada Perez Yunieski (Cub-7.5); Evgeny Alekseev (Rus-7.5) bt Timur Gareyev (Uzb-6.5); Zhe Quan (Can-7) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind-6.5);  Ferenc Berkes (Hun-7) bt David Smerdon (Aus-6); Deepan Chakravarthy (Ind-6) lost to Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol-7); Nadj Hadjesi Balind (SCG-6) lost to Mark Paragua (Phi-7); Artem IIjin (Rus-7) bt Linus Olsson (Swe-6); Arghyadip Das (Ind-6) lost to Erwin l'Ami (Neth-6); Sai Srinivas (Ind-6) lost to Elshan Moradiabadi (Iri-7); Leandro Perdomo (Arg-5.5) lost to Mateusz Bartel (Pol-6.5); Poobesh Anand (Ind-5.5) Pablo Lafuente (Arg-6.5). (Girls) Eleventh round: Joanna Majdan (Pol-7) drew with Ekaterina Korbut (Rus-8.5); Perez R Jennifer (Cub-6.5) drew with Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger-8.5); Eesha Karavade (Ind-7.5) bt Anna Ushenina (Ukr-7.5); Alina Motoc (Rom-6) lost to Zhang Jilin (Chn-7.5); Siti Zulaikha (Mas-6.5) drew with Vinuthna (Ind-6.5); Gutsko Anastasiya (Ukr-5.5) lost to Saheli Nath (Ind-6.5); Dana Aketayeva (Kaz-5.5) lost ot Nadig Kruttika (Ind-6.5); Kavitha (Ind-5.5) lost to Marties Bensdorp (Neth-6.5); Tania Sachdev (Ind-6.5) bt Raghavi (Ind-5); P Sivasankari (Ind-6) bt Anuprit Patil (Ind-5); Delphin (Ind-6) bt Koneru Chandra Hawsa (Ind- 5); Ghader Pour Shaesteh (Iri-5) lost to Sandhya (Ind-5.5).