Riding high on her brilliant form, women Grandmaster Tania Sachdev crashed through the defences of women International Master Bianca Muhren of Holland to jump into the joint lead at the World Junior Girls chess championship in Yerevan, Armenia.
It turned out to be another excellent day for Tania, who now shares the lead with women GM Melia Salome of Georgia and Mongolian Mongontuul Bathuyag on 5.5 points apiece with six rounds remaining in the strongest girls' event in the world. Overnight leader Mongontuul was defeated by Melia in the latest round.
Playing white, Tania solved her opening problems in quick time against Muhren and reached a rook and minor piece endgame wherein the Dutch girl had a very weak position.
Knocking down one pawn, Tania forced a minor piece endgame to win in 65 moves.
In the boys championship, Grandmaster Deepan Chakravarthy came back in the reckoning for top honours with a thumping victory over higher rated International Master Boris Grachev of Russia.
Springing an opening surprise, Deepan was always in command in the one-sided affair that started with the Keres attack. Grachev went for a dubious continuation early in the opening and did not have a chances to recover thereafter.
The victory took Deepan to 5 points out of a possible 7.
© 2024 Rediff.com -