Magesh Chandran's dream run continues

International Master-norm aspirant P Magesh Chandran continued with his dream run and put it across IM Nikola Sedlak of Yugoslavia to move into joint second position on four points after the conclusion of the fifth round of the World Junior boys and girls chess championship in Athens.

IM Sergei Azarov of Belarus emerged sole leader in the boys' section with a thumping victory over IM Emanuel Berg of Sweden. Azarov has a perfect 5 points from his five outings and is followed by a pack of nine players with 4 points each.

Woman FIDE Master Kosintseva Nadezhda of Russia leads the girls' section with an identical 5/5 after beating overnight joint leader IWM Gu Xiaobing of China.

Woman Grandmaster Koneru Humpy and IWM S Meenakshi slipped down in the standing list in the girls' section after Monday's games. Humpy drew her game against Sopiko Khukhashvili of Georgia while Meenakshi succumbed to sixth seed WGM Mkrtchian Lilit of Armenia.

Playing white, Magesh opened with his pet king pawn and was up against a Sicilian Nazdorf. The age-old variation was soon on board and Magesh chose a relatively new idea by going for the queenside bind that gave more space to his pieces.

Nikola overestimated his chances in the middlegame by going for a counter attack and Magesh soon seized the initiative with a thematic exchange of minor pieces that gave him spatial advantage with his light squared Bishop.

The final nail was put in by Magesh on the 33rd move with a pawn capture by his Bishop that ripped open the king side. With checkmate and inevitable material loss to follow, Nikola resigned on his 36th move.

In the next round Magesh will take on International Master Navara David of the Czech Republic.

The other Indian boys in the fray had mixed results as IM Tejas Bakre drew with Kalin Karakehajov of Bulgaria in a Ruy Lopez game with white pieces. Tejas opted for the closed set up and did not get much from the opening as the queens got traded on the 15th move itself. It was a level game thereon and subsequent exchanges at regular intervals led the game to a drawn endgame where the peace treaty was signed in 41 moves.

M R Venkatesh scored over Sam Collins of Ireland with black pieces but Asian Junior Bronze medallist K Rathnakaran went down to higher rated Mastrovasilis Dimitrios of Greece.

Humpy drew with Khukhashvili from the white side of an irregular opening game. Getting a miniscule advantage out of the opening, Humpy strove for an attack on the queenside but a couple of minor pieces got exchanged in the middlegame to contain her from making a decisive headway. The draw was agreed to in a balanced endgame in 36 moves.