Humpy holds top-seed Yuanyuan

KOZHIKODE, AUG. 27. Koneru Humpy stayed on course for her maiden title in the World junior chess championship when she held the top-seed Xu Yuanyuan of China to a draw in the tenth round in Athens on Sunday. The two girls thus maintained their joint lead, with three rounds remaining.

They are on 7.5 points, half-a-point ahead of Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany, Lilit Mkrtchian of Armenia, Olga Zimina of Russia, Zhao Xue of China and Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia. In the 11th round, Humpy meets Zhao Xue, while Xu Yuanyuan takes on Mkrtchian.

Both S. Meenakshi and Aarthie Ramaswamy suffered defeats, going down to Dzaginidze and Nadedzhda Kosintseva of Russia respectively, while Asian junior champion M. Kasturi drew with Spain's Giedr Ramanauskaite.

Tejas Bakre, twice Asian junior champion, beat a lower-rated Gabor Papp to move to 6.5 points to move into the joint fourth position. But P. Magesh Chandran, easily the most impressive Indian in the boys' field, lost to Sergei Azarov, as his fine run finally came to an end and he remains on six points. M.R. Venkatesh got the better of Nikola Sedlak, while K. Ratnakaran was beaten by Konstantin Georgiou of the host.

Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia took the sole lead with a victory with black pieces against Emanuel Berg of Sweden. He has eight points, half-a-point ahead of top seed Ni Hua of China, Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia, and Peter Acs of Hungary.

* Important results (tenth round):

Boys: Ni Hua (Chn) 7.5 drew with Merab Gagunashvili (Geo) 7.5; Emanuel Berg (Sew) 6.5 lost to Gabriel Sargissian (Arm) 8; Levon Aronian (Arm) 7 drew with Peter Acs (Hun) 7; David Navara (Cze) 7 drew with Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) 7; Evgeny Shaposhnikov (Rus) 6.5 drew with Artur Neiksans (Lat) 6.5; Sergei Azarov (Blr) 7 bt P. Magesh Chandran (Ind) 6; Kamil Miton (Pol) 6.5 bt Dimit Mastrovasilis (Gre) 5.5; Michael Roiz (Isr) 6 dre with Andreas Schenk (Ger) 6; Adam Horvath (Hun) 6.5 bt Stefan Kristjansson (Isl) 5.5; Zviad Izoria 6.5 bt Du Shan (Chn) 5.5; Richard Palliser (Eng) 6.5 bt Jan Markos (Svk) 5.5; Daniel Hersvik (Nor) 5.5 lost to Anton Korobov (Ukr) 6.5; Gabor Papp 5.5 (Hun) lost to Tejas Bakre (Ind) 6.5; M.R. Venkatesh (Ind) 5.5 bt Nikola Sedlak (Yug) 4.5; K. Ratnakaran (Ind) 4 lost to K. Georgiou (Gre) 5.

Girls: Koneru Humpy 7.5 drew with Xu Yuanyuan (Chn) 7.5; Elisabeth Paehtz 7 bt Tatiana Kosintseva (Rus) 6.5; Lilit Mkrtchian (Arm) 7 drew with Iweta Radziewicz (Pol) 6.5; Olga Zimina (Rus) 7 bt Inga Charkhalashvili (Geo) 6.5; Zhao Xue (Chn) 7 bt Gu Xiaobing (Chn) 6; Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 7 bt S. Meenakshi (Ind) 6; Nadezhda Kosintseva (Rus) 6.5 bt Aarthie Ramaswamy (Ind) 5.5; Sopiko Khukhashvili (Geo) 6.5 bt Ekaterina Ubiennykh (Rus) 5; Saira Sanchez Castillo (Ven) 5 lost to Jana Jackova (Cze) 6; Maria Sergeeva (Kaz) 5.5 drew with Marisa Zuriel (Arg) 5.5; Evel Moncayo Romero (Ecu) 5 lost to Dana Reizniece (Lat) 6; Cristina Calotescu (Rom) 5.5 drew with Darja Kaps (Slo) 5.5; Natalia Hryhorenko (Ukr) 6 bt Julia Volosjuk (Blr) 5; M. Kasturi (Ind) 4.5 drew with Giedre Ramanauskaite (Esp) 4.5.

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