Harika moves to sole second place

Top seed D Harika scored a thumping victory over Sabrina Vega Gutierrez of Spain to reclaim sole second spot after the end of the eighth round in the World Junior Girls' chess championship in Yerevan, Armenia, on Friday.

Playing white Harika, who was a half point behind Sabrina before the start of this round, gave a fine performance to move to 6.5 points out of a possible eight.

At the top, leader Vera Nebolsina of Russia was held to a draw by Mongontuul Bathuyag of Mongolia, leaving the championship wide open as Nebolsina is now just a half point ahead of Harika.

Women Grandmaster Eesha Karavade also remained within striking distance as she now has six points after a fine victory over Tatevik Airapetian of Armenia and shares joint third spot with Sabrina.

It was a good day for the Indian girls as Soumya Swaminathan and Mary Ann Gomes also scored victories over Marine Grigorian of Armenia and Aices Salvador of Philippines respectively

P Priya also came out trumps against Lusine Karapetyan of Armenia. The only loser amongst Indian girls was Padmini Rout, who was beaten by Elena Tairova of Russia.

In the boys' section, G N Gopal went down fighting against Meier Georg of Germany while World's youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi retained his medal hopes after a creditable draw with higher ranked GM Maxim Rodshtein of Israel.

Amongst other Indians in the fray only G Rohit was impressive in his triumph over local David Kalashian. Deepan Chakkravarthy was held to a draw by Polish Krzyszt of Bulski while National Junior champion Abhijeet Gupta misplayed a won position to split points with Yuri Vovk of Ukraine.

At the top, Ahmed Adly of Egypt continued his dream run and defeated Viktor Laznicka of Czech Republic, taking his tally to seven points out of a possible eight.

Adly stretched his lead to a full point over four nearest contenders including top seed Wang Hao of China.

Negi is in joint fifth spot on 5.5 points and meets Ivan Popov of Russia, who has six points, in the next round.

Important results after round 8:

Boys: Adly Ahmed (Egy, 7) beat Viktor Laznicka (Cze, 5.5); Wang Hao(Chn, 6) beat So Wesley (Phi, 5); Ivan Popov (Rus, 6) beat Daniel Stellwagen (5); Maxim Rodshtein (Isr, 5.5) drew with Parimarjan Negi (5.5); Georg Meier (Ger, 6) beat G N Gopal (5); Gawain Jones (Eng, 4.5) lost to Avetik Grigoryan (Arm, 6); Sasha Kaplan (Isr, 5) drew with Ashwin Jayaram (5); Yuri Vovk (Ukr, 5) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (5); Krzysztof Bulski (Pol, 4.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy (4.5); G Rohit (5) beat David Kalashian (Arm, 4) Filip Pancevski (Mkd, 3.5) beat Abhishek Das (2.5); Shamieh Mahmoud (Lib, 2.5) lost to R Arun Karthik (3).

Girls: Mongontuul Bathuyag (Mgl, 5.5) drew with Vera Nebolsina (Rus,6.5); D Harika Dronavalli (6.5) beat Sabrina Vega Gutierrez (Esp, 5); Jolanta Zawadzka (Pol, 5.5) drew with Sarah Hoolt (Ger, 5.5); Tatevik Airapetian (Arm, 5) lost to Eesha Karavade (6); Anna Gasik (Hun, 6) beat Zuzana Borosova (Svk, 5); Anna Hairapetian (Arm, 4.5) lost to Melia Salome (Geo, 5.5); Elena Tairova (Rus, 5) beat Padmini Rout (Ind, 4); Marine Grigorian (Arm, 4) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (5); Aices Salvador (Phi, 4) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (5); Lusine Karapetyan(Arm, 3.5) lost to P Priya (4.5).