World Youth Chess: Divya stays on recovery course; Praggnanandhaa, Rakshitta held

Divya Deshmukh notched up a second successive win, while R. Praganandhaa drew with Iran’s Aryan Gholami in the World Youth chess championship on Sunday.

M. Sreeshwan beat China’s Sun Jiajun in 34 moves to keep his hopes of progression alive at the World Youth Chess championship.

Ranking favourites M. Sreeshwan and Divya Deshmukh continued their act of redemption with a second successive win in their respective under-14 sections of the World Youth chess championship here.

Looking to make amends for the fourth round defeat, Sreeshwan and Divya scored contrasting victories on Sunday and kept alive chances of living up to their top billing. Sreeshwan punished China’s Sun Jiajun for a late miscalculation in 34 moves. Much later, Divya ended the resistance of Kazakh Liya Kurmangaliyeva in 53 moves.

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In under-18, second seed R. Praganandhaa (five points) was involved in a draw for a second time after facing fellow leader and third seed Iran’s Aryan Gholami for 39 moves. Top seed Shant Sargsyan moved to 4.5 points after beating Kazakh Ramazan Zhalmakhanov.

Creditably, Aditya Mittal, seeded 16, continued his unbeaten run by holding defending champion Viktor Gazik, seeded four.

On a day when all six top seeds won, two of the overnight leaders, girls’ under-14 second seed Rakshitta Ravi and under-16 eighth seed Aronyak Ghosh, drew.