Easy for Harika, Negi

For the second day in a row, Indian gold aspirants Woman Grandmaster D Harika and

Parimarjan Negi scored easy victories in the second round of the World Youth Chess Championships in Belfort, France.

While Harika scored over Iryna Khudaya in the Under-16 girls' section, Negi was also quite outstanding in his victory over Stephen Kaphle in the Under-12 boys' championship.

The event is being played on a Swiss league in 10 different categories. Over 1000 players are in contention for 30 medals in various age groups, from Under-10 to Under-18.

In the under-10 boys' section, Shiven Khosla and Sahaj Grover maintained clean slates. Khosla played well to beat Ian Guido Ocampos, who played black, while Grover also scored with the pieces over Fu Xiaoyong.

Among other Indians in the section, K Sudarshan opened his account, defeating Romain Banms-Robles and Rishi Thariani drew with Irwin Rakotoniaina to inch to 1.5 points.

In the girls' section, K Sai Nirupama was held to a draw by Anna Iwanow. Giving company to Negi on two points in the Under-12 boys' section are S P Sethuraman, N Srinath and VAV Rajesh who all also won their second round games to move to two points.

S P Sethuraman was quite impressive in winning with black pieces against Yi-Ren Daniel Chan, N Srinath accounted for Karoly Szalay and Rajes got the better of Yusup Atabayev.

In the girls' under-12, P Lakshmi Sahiti, after a disastrous first round loss, came back strongly to beat Arina Hohluka in a one-sided affair.