World Junior Chess C'ships: Divya Deshmukh maintains sole pole position

Top seed IM Divya Deshmukh maintained her pole position after an easy win over her compatriot, WIM Rakshitta Ravi, in the Women’s section of the FIDE World Junior Chess Championships currently being held in Gandhinagar.

She is followed by WIM Mariam Mkrtchyan trailing by just half a point. Playing with the black pieces, Divya effectively coordinated her pieces and exploited tactical opportunities to seal the win in 41 moves.

Both players began with standard moves by opening with the French Defense. Rakshita's aggressive pawn pushes on the kingside led to weaknesses that Divya exploited through focused piece development and central control.

In another game, at board no 3 Sachi Jain jumped 4 places to sit at number 3 on the table with 7 points after her win over Bulgarian Beloslava Krasteva.

In the open section, Daniel Quizon of the Philippines joins the tussle at the top, making a total of 5 players with 7 points each after his win over Russia’s Artsiom I Strybuk. He now joins Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan, Rudik Makarian of Russia, Colombia’s Jose Cardoso, and Mamikon Gharibyan of Armenia.

Top 3rd seed of the tournament, Pranav Anand, is the sole Indian in the top 10 of the standings after his draw against Aleksey Grebnev of Russia. Pranav succumbed to a shocking defeat in the previous round to 11th-seeded Jose Cardoso of Colombia.

Important results (Ninth round):

Open section

Kazybek Nogerbek (FIDE) 7 drew with Rudrik Makarian (FIDE) 7; Mamikon Gharibyan (Arm) 7 drew with Jose Gabriel Cardoso (Col) 7; Daniel Quizon (Phi) 7 bt Artsiom I Strybuk (FIDE) 6; Pranav Anand (IND) 6 drew with Aleksey Grebnev (FIDE) 6.5

Women’s section

Rakshitta Ravi (Ind) 6.5 lost to Divya Deshmukh (Ind) 8; Mariam Mkrtchyan (Arm) 7.5 bt Sofia Hryzlova (Swz) 6; Beloslava Krasteva (Bul) 6 lost to Sachi Jain (Ind) 7