World Junior Chess: Mrudul, Aronyak cause upsets; Vaishali held

Mrudul Dehankar stunned second seeded Greek International Master Stavroula Tsolakidou to share lead in girls section with 10 others, including India's N. Priyanka and Arpita Mukherjee.

Aronyak Ghosh brought down third seeded compatriot and National champion Aravindh Chithambaram in a 49-move thriller.

The World junior chess championship is just two days old but some of the lesser-rated Indian teens are already busy proving their prowess. Mrudul Dehankar, seeded a distant 29, produced a cracker of a performance on the top board to stun second seeded Greek International Master Stavroula Tsolakidou in just 23 moves. That too, with black pieces!

She was among the 11 leaders, including teammates N. Priyanka and Arpita Mukherjee, at two points.

Less than 24 hours after holding the top seed Amin Tabatabaei, 48th seed Aronyak Ghosh brought down third seeded compatriot and National champion Aravindh Chithambaram in a 49-move thriller.

Though three other Indian Grandmasters Harsha Bharathakoti, N. R. Vishak and P. Iniyan were held, the last by Sankalp Gupta, second seed M. Karthikeyan recorded his first win.

There were eight leaders, with the lone Indian being R. Praggnanandhaa, at two points.

However, reputations continued to take a beating for the second day when top-ranked Tabatabaei was held again, this time by Australia’s Albert Winkelman. The fifth seeded medal aspirant in the girls’ section, R. Vaishali dropped half a point to Estonia’s Margareth Olde.

 

Important second-round results (Indians unless stated):Open: Shant Sargsyan (Arm, 2) bt Aditya Mittal (1) Bharath Subramanium (1) lost to Evgeny Shtembuliak (Ukr, 2); R. Praggnanandhaa (2) bt Or Bronstein (Isr, 1); Anuj Shrivatri (1.5) drew with Harsha Bharathakoti (1.5); N. R. Visakh (1.5) drew with Vid Dobrovoljc (Slo, 1.5); Luke Mendonca (1.5) drew with Sergei Lobanov (Rus, 1.5); P. Iniyan (1.5) drew with Sankalp Gupta (1.5). M. Karthikeyan (1.5) bt Nitish Belurkar (0.5); Aronyak Ghosh (1.5) bt Aravindh Chithambaram (0.5). Girls: Starvoula Tsolakidou (Gre, 1) lost to Mrudul Dehankar (2); Margareth Oide (Est, 1) v R. Vaishali (1); Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 1.5) drew with Aakanksha Hagawane (1.5); Saloni Sapale (1.5) drew with Gabriela Antova (Bul, 1.5); Rakshitta Ravi (2) bt Anaelle Afraoui (Fra, 1); N. Priyanka (2) bt C. Lakshmi (1); Polina Shuvalova (Rus, 1.5) bt Savitha Shri (0.5); Vyanla Punsalan (Nzl, 0.5) lost to Divya Deshmukh (1.5); Vantika Agarwal (1.5) bt Tumurbaatar Nomindalai (Mgl, 0.5).