Immensely-talented local International Master Aditya Mittal held back top-seeded Grandmaster Shant Sargsyan before fellow-Armenian Artur Davtyan proved equal to second seed R. Praggnanandhaa in the under-18 section of the World Youth chess championship here on Thursday.
On a double-round day when matches went late into the night, Mittal provided the brightest phase. His defensive tactics saw him hold a rival rated 150 points higher at 2580. Sargsyan, the highest rated player here, gained a pawn and looked to be cruising for a win. But Mittal played the rook-and-pawn endgame to perfection and eventually came out with honours even in 66 moves.
RELATED|
World Youth Chess Championship: Vedant Panesar stuns Viktor Gazik
At the adjacent table, Praggnanandhaa battled for over five hours against Davtyan but failed to make the most of his pawn-advantage.
On a day when the march of several high-rated players was slowed down by little-known talents, surprise-packet C. Lakshmi upstaged sixth and eighth seeded rivals to join the leaders in the girls’ under-16.
Most surprises came from the girls’ under-14 section where the top four seeds failed to score their third straight win. Top seed Divya Deshmukh was held by Poland’s Martyna Wikar, second seed Rakshitta Ravi could only get a draw off Armenia’s Ashghik Hakobyan, third seed Azerbaijan’s Ayan Allahverdiyeva lost and fourth seeded Russian Ekaterina Nayrova drew.
Comments
SHARE