Aleksandra Goryachkina wins world junior girls title with a round to spare

Aleksandra Goryachkina

The Russians were not ready to be dismissed by the Chinese and rose to the occasion in the 12thand penultimate round of the LIC World junior Chess championship which is in the concluding stages at Hotel Hyatt in Pune. Alexandra Goryachkina scored a thumping Grand Double, successfully defending her title which she won at Turkey last year with a round to spare in the Girls section by defeating Srija Seshadri.

Her compatriot Vladimir Fedoseev, the top seed opened the doors towards the title in the open section to keep the contest alive just when the Chinese appeared to be running away with the title. In an exciting tussle on the top board, Fedoseev defeated sole leader Wei Yi to share joint leader status

Goryachkina has tallied a whopping 10.5 points and maintained a clean slate. Ann Chumpitaz of Peru is trailing in second place with 9 points, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh follows next with 8.5 points and Padmini Rout, Srija Seshadri along with three others are bunched together with 8 points. Tomorrow , on Sunday the final round will commence at 10.00 AM.

In the Open section there is a four way tie at the top with Fedoseev, Wei, Lu Shanglei of China and Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland all totalling 9 points each. Kamil Dragun of Poland follows next with 8.5 points while Vidit Santosh Gujrathi along with eight others has scored 8 points each.

From the Indian angle, Padmini Rout, our best medal hope conceded another draw to Anna Iwanow, making things more difficult for her. Padmini opting for the Modern Defence had to split point despite an extra pawn in a rook and bishop each ending after 52 moves and has logged 8 points

Fedoseev after an indifferent first half has been working his way steadily up the points ladder and today capitalized on an opening inaccuracy by We Yi to score a smooth victory. Fedoseev however modestly said” It was a bad day for Wei as he made a mistake in the opening variation”.

Wei adopted the Grunfeld Defene but got into a severely cramped position after some dubious queen and pawn moves on the 11th and 12th turn. Thereafter in a desperate bid to gain some counter-play, he tried to attack on the Kingside but Fedoseev played sensible and simple chess, first advancing his passed pawn in the centre to seventh rank and then accepting the queen offer of his opponent for a rook and two minor pieces. Left with hardly any play on board Wei resigned on the 35th move.

In contrast Jorge Cori of Peru impressive in the first half, has been steadily losing way and today was upset by Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland.

One more round is remaining in this 13 round gruelling event sponsored by LIC and Government of Maharashtra and Amanora, ONGC, Jain Irrigation and Everstone are the Associate sponsors.

Important Results of Open section (Indians unless specified)

Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus)-9 bt Wei Yi (Chn)-9; Lu Shanglei (Chn)-9 drew Kamil Dragun (Pol)-8.5; Duda Jan-Krzysztof (Pol)-9 bt Jorge Cori (Per)-9; Karthikeyan M-8 drew Vidit Santosh Gujrathi-8 ; Quinten Ducarmon (Ned)-8 drew Aleksander Indjic (Srb)-8; Aryan Tari (Nor)-8 drew Grigoriy Oparin (Rus)-8 ; Ankit Rajpara-7.5 drew Bai Jinshi (Chn)-7.5; Aravindh Chithambaram-7.5 drew Benjamin Bok-7.5 ; Karen Grigoriyan (Arm)-7.5 drew Anurag Mhamal-7.5 ; N Srinath-8 bt Vladislav Kovalev (Blr)-7; Diptayan Ghosh -7.5 drew Borya Ider (Fra)-7.5

Girls Section

Aleksandra Goryachkin (Rus)-10.5 bt Srija Seshadri-8 ; Sabina Ibrahimova (Aze)-7.5 bt Ann Chumpitaz (Per)-9 ; Meri Arabidze(Geo)-7.5 lost to Sarasadat Khademalshaarieh (Iri)-8.5 ; Anna Iwanow (Pol)-8 drew Padmini Rout-8 ; Marina Brunello (Ita)-8 bt Daria Pustovoitova (Rus)-7.5 ; Zhai Mo (Chn)-7.5 drew Ivana Maria Furtado-7.5 ; Ioana Gelip (Rou)-7 lost to Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva (Uzb)-8; Nguyen Thi Mai (Vie)-7 drew G K Monnisha-7 ;