Harika stays on course

Top seed Woman Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika was held to a draw by Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia in the 8th round of the under 14 girls section of the World youth Chess Championships in Greece on Thursday.

Muzychuk, who put up a spirited show, halted Harika's winning run. As a result of the peace, Harika was joined by Elena Tairova of Russia at the top of the tables on 7 points from 8 games and it is almost a race between them for the world title.

But Harika definitely has a better chance thanks to her excellent tiebreak score and given the opposition she has played.

Just three rounds remain in this event, which is holding 10 different world championships simultaneously..

In the under 12 boys, Parimarjan Negi recovered from his seventh round loss against Zhao Nan of China and drew with another Chinese Ding Liren to move to 6.5 points.

Zhao Nan meanwhile looks like a boy with a mission.

Starting as the 120 seed as an non-rated player, Nan's exploits have been exemplary thus far and he stretched his lead to a full point over his nearest rivals after scoring a fine win over Julian Jorcjik of Germany in 8th round.

Negi, Liren, Safarli Eltaz of Azerbaijan and Evgeniy Pak of Uzbekistan are next in the standing list behind Nan.

By far the best performer in 10 different events has been Mary Arabidze of Geogia, who is almost sure to win the under 10 Girls crown. In the eighth round game, Arabidze continued with her winning ways to outwit Qurbonboyeva Sarvinoz and registered her eighth victory on the trot. She now has a 1.5 points lead over Samadzade Sevinj of Azerbaijan while India's S Tejaswini Reddy is in the list of hopefuls on 6 points sharing third spot with five others.

In the under 10 boys, N Srinath jumped to joint sixth spot after winning his 8th round game against Alexandrenkov Yevgen. However, it will require a brilliant finish if he has to figure amongst medals here as joint leaders Jules Moussard of France and Yu Yangyi of China have 7 points apiece and are a full point ahead of the Indian.

Mary Ann Gomes bounced back with a fine victory over Choisy Mathilde of France in the under 16 Girls' section.

Leading the event a few rounds back, Mary now finds herself within striking distance of the medal. Purtseladze Maka of Georgia shot into sole lead as her compatriot Bela Khote Nashvili suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Joanna Majdan of Poland. Gomes is in joint fourth spot.