She may be one of the younger and lesser-rated players here, but K. Priyanka found herself among the leaders on a warm Saturday. It was her victory over third seed and fellow-Indian Pratyusha Bodda on the third board that made her join Russia’s Dinara Dordzhieva and Janelle Mae Frayna of Philippines at the top table at the end of the sixth round of the World Junior Girls’ Chess Championship at the KIIT University campus.
The 15-year-old from Coimbatore has five points, with another six rounds remaining. “I could not have imagined that I would be in the lead near the half-way stage of such a strong tournament,” Priyanka said.
The day also saw top seed Dinara Saduakassova of Kazakhstan being held to a draw by Russian Dinara Dordzhieva and P.V. Nandhidhaa extending her fine run, as she drew with ninth seed and overnight joint leader Jannelle Maye Frayna of Philippines.
Nandhidhaa, with 4.5 points, is in joint second position, along with second seed Alina Bivol of Russia, Paula Rodriguez Rueda of Colombia and Saduakassova.
A flurry of draws in the boys’ event meant the lone overnight leader Karthikeyan Murali remained in his pole position. He did that in fine fashion too, holding top seed Vladislav Artemiev of Russia to a draw.
The Chennai lad has five points, but is followed half-a-point behind by as many as nine players, including second seed Jeffrey Xiong of the United States, who was forced to split the point by Xu Yunglun of China.
Important results (sixth round; Indians unless specified): Vladislav Artemiev (Rus) 4.5 drew with Karthikeyan Murali 5; Jeffrey Xiong (USA) 4.5 drew with Xu Yunglun (Chn) 4.5; Grzegorz Nasuta (Pol) 4.5 drew with Aravindh Chithambaram 4.5; Masoud Mosadeghpour (Ira) 4.5 drew with S.L. Narayanan 4.5; Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 3.5 lost to Kirill Alekseenko (Rus) 4.5; Parham Maghsoodloo (Ira) 4 drew with R. Pragnananda 4; Rasmus Svane (Ger) 4.5 bt Irakli Beradze 3.5; Shardul Gagare 4 drew with Christoph Menezes 4; Stefan Beukema (Bel) 4 drew with Dennis Wagner (Ger) 3.5; Cristobal Henrique Villagra (Ch) 3.5 drew with Erigaisi Arjun 3,5; Shahin Lorparizangeneh (Ira) 3.5 drew with Harsha Bharathakoti 3.5; N.R. Visakh 3.5 drew with Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad 3.5; Syed Khalil Mousavi (Ira) 4 bt Sammed Shete 3; Grandadam Patrik (Swi) 3.5 drew with Paulo Bersamina (Phi) 3.5; G. Akash 4 bt Srijit Paul 3.
Girls: Dinara Saduakassova (Kaz) 4.5 drew with Dinara Dordzhieva (Rus) 5; Janelle Mae Frayna (Phi) 5 drew with P.V. Nandhidhaa 4.5; Pratyusha Bodda 4 lost to K. Priyanka 5; Karina Ivanova (Rus) 4 drew with Alina Bivol (Rus) 4.5; Paula Rodriguez Rueda (Col) 4.5 bt R. Vaishali 3.5; Ashritha Eswaran (USA) 3 lost to Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (Uzb) 4; Harshita Guddanti 3 lost to bt Anna Styazhkina (Rus) 4; Caterina Leonardi (Slo) 3 lost to Nataliya Buksa (Ukr) 4; Teodora Injac (Srb) 3.5 drew with Parnali S. Dharia 3.5; M. Mahalakshmi 3.5 drew with Gu Tianlu 3.5.
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