Women Grandmaster Tania Sachdev has a tough match on hand against Mongontuul Bathuyag of Mongolia in the eighth round of the World Junior girls' chess championship when it resumes on Wednesday after a day's rest.
Having done quite well in the first half of the event, Tania was a picture of confidence as she prepared for the all-important game against Bathuyag, who is amongst the tougher players in the tournament.
After the first seven rounds in the championship, Tania, Bathuyag and Melia Salome of Georgia share the lead with 5.5 points each. They are followed by top seed Hou Yifan of China and Tatev Abrahamyan of the United States. Both have five points each.
Just six rounds remain in the event and the eighth round will begin on Wednesday after the only rest day that was slated for Tuesday.
Tania is certainly the pick of the Indians, with Dronavali Harika following her with a brisk pace. The Andhra girl is joint-sixth with 4.5 points in her bag and needs to score a couple of wins to be nearer or amongst the leading group.
In the eighth round Harika meets Abrahamyan.
"I am quite happy with the way things have gone so far for me and I hope I continue to do as well, tomorrow's game is going to be quite important, as Bathuyag is quite a tough player," said Tania.
In the boys' section, Deepan Chakravarthy is back in the reckoning for a medal with two fine victories after losing from a winning position against Grandmaster Pantsulaia Levan.
In the next round Deepan meets Arman Pashikian of Armenia.
Yuriy Kryvoruchko of Ukraine is leading this section on six points while Deepan is currently joint-fifth on 5 points.
Amongst other Indians in the fray in the girls' section Eesha Karavade is set to meet compatriot Kruttika Nadig in the next round while Mary Ann Gomes has to tackle Dana Akateava of Kazakhstan.
Both Kruttika and Eesha are on 4.5 points like Harika and in with a chance to figure amongst medals provided they play the remaining rounds quite well.
The other Indian girls P Priya and Soumya Swaminathan are out of sorts.
In the boys' section, it looks a different story as apart from Deepan no one looks in any serious medal contention.
GM-norm holder Abhijeet Gupta misplayed far too many promising positions and looks in bad form even though he has a respectable four points
Another GM-norm holder Deep Sengupta, who sparkled in patches, has a similar score. The other contender Rahul Sangma is on just 2.5 points and will have to work hard not to lose some rating points from here.
Indian pairings round 8:
World Juniors: Arman Pashikian (Arm, 5) vs Deepan Chakravarthy (5); Abhijeet Gupta (4) vs Wang Li (Chn, 4); Deep Sengupta (4) vs Le Quang Liem (Vie, 4); Tomek Rej (Aus, 2.5) vs Rahul Sangma (2.5).
Girls: Tania Sachdev (5.5), Mongontuul Bathuyag (Mgl, 5.5); D Harika (4.5), Tatev Abrahamyan (Usa, 5); Kruttika Nadig (4.5) Eesha Karavade (4.5); Mary Ann Gomes (4) Dana Aketaeva (Kaz, 4); Natalia Buttner (3) v/s P Priya (3); Soumya Swaminathan (2.5) Ghazal Hakimifard (Iri, 2.5).
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