Humpy surges into joint lead

KOZHIODE, AUG. 26. Indian prodigy Koneru Humpy moved to the joint lead at the end of the ninth round of the World junior girls' chess championship in Athens on Saturday.

On what was a fine day for the Indians, P. Magesh Chandran scored his maiden International norm with another surprising win in the boys' event, S. Meenakshi moved to the joint third position and Aarthie Ramaswamy achieved a creditable draw.

Fourteen-year-old Humpy beat the overnight leader Lilit Mkrtchian on the top board with black pieces and took her tally to seven points, the same as the top seed Xu Yuanyuan of China, who outwitted compatriot Gu Xiaobing, also with black. With four rounds remaining, the leaders come face to face in the tenth round.

They are half-a-point ahead of Mkrtchian, Tatiana Kosintseva of Russia and Inga Charkhalashvili of Georgia. Meenakshi is on six points, following her victory against Vera Papadopoulou of Greece. Aarthie Ramaswamy drew with Sopiko Khukhashvili of Georgia, seeded four places above, while M. Kasturi went down to Darja Kaps of Slovenia.

Magesh continued his good run, shocking the 16th seed Evgeny Postny of Israel on the ninth board and now has six points. Tejas Bakre was held to a draw by a lower rated Richard Palliser of England, while M.R. Venkatesh was beatem by Adam Horvath of Hungary. K. Ratnakaran, the other Indian in the fray, drew with Igor Bitansky. Three players - top seed Ni Hua of China, Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia and Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia - are jointly leading the field with seven points apiece.

Important results (ninth round): Boys: Merab Gagunashvili (Geo) 7 drew with Levon Aronian (Arm) 6.5; Peter Acs (Hun) 6.5 drew with David Navara (Cze) 6.5; Gabriel Sargissian (Arm) 7 bt Sergei Azarov (Blr) 6; Michael Roiz (Isr) 5.5 lost to Ni Hua (Chn) 7; Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) 6.5 bt Anton Korobov (Ukr) 5.5; Zviad Izoria (Geo) 5.5 lost to Emanuel Berg (Swe) 6.5; Dmitry Schneider (US) 5 lost to Evgeny Shaposhnikov (Rus) 6; Stefan Kristjansson (Isl) 5.5 drew with Kamil Miton (Pol) 5.5; P. Magesh Chandran (Ind) 6 bt Evgeny Postny (Isr) 5; Du Shan (Chn) 5.5 drew with Jan Markos (Svk) 5.5; Tejas Bakre (Ind) 5.5 drew with Richard Palliser (Eng) 5.5; Artur Neiksans (Lat) 6 bt Lukas Cernousek (Cze) 5; Daniel Hersvik (Nor) 5.5 drew with Nicholas Pert (Eng) 5; Adam Horvath (Hun) 5.5 bt M.R. Venkatesh (Ind) 4; Igor Bitansky (Isl) 4 drew with K. Rathnakaran (Ind) 4.

Girls: Lilit Mkrtchian (Arm) 6.5 lost to Koneru Humpy (Ind) 7; Gu Xiaobing (Chn) 6 lost to Xu Yuanyuan (Chn) 7; Tatiana Kosintseva (Rus) 6.5 drew with Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 6; Inga Charkhalashvili (Geo) 6.5 bt Nadezhda Kosintseva (Rus) 5.5; Dana Reizniece (Lat) 5 lost to Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger) 6; Iweta Radziewicz (Pol) 6 bt Iroda Khamrakulova (Uzb) 5; Marisa Zuriel (Arg) 5 lost to Zhao Xue (Chn) 6; Jana Jackova (Cze) 5 lost to Olga Zimina (Rus) 6; Aarthie Ramaswamy 5.5 drew with Sopiko Khukhashvili (Geo) 5.5; S. Meenakshi (Ind) 6 bt Vera Papadopoulou (Gre) 5.5 Julia Volosjuk (Blr) 5 drew with Maria Sergeeva (Kaz) 5; Ekaterina Korbut (Rus) 4.5 drew with Cristina Moshina (Mda) 5; Darja Kaps (Slo) 5 bt M. Kasturi (Ind) 4.

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