Fifteen-year-old Aravindh Chithambaram holds the promise of an abundantly-talented player whose time is yet to come.
With five more attempts available in the World junior (under-20) chess championship, Aravindh is clearly India’s best future bet for the title. He has the game and the resilience to blossom on a stage which has produced some of the finest champions of the cerebral sport.
On Thursday, Aravindh gave another evidence of his temperament and tenacity as he bounced back from an evidently-lost position in the middle-game to hold fifth seed Jorge Cori. With seven points, he joined Diptayan Ghosh and a victorious Ankit Rajpara in a group of 12 players chasing the two Chinese leaders, Lu Shanglei and Wei Yi.
After Shanglei stunned top seed Vladimir Fedoseev in 37 moves, Wei Yi stopped another Russian Mikhail Antipov after 34 turns to reach eight points.
For Russia, girls’ top seed and defending champion Aleksandra Goryachkina brought some cheers when she stretched her lead to one point. In what should be the shortest contest of the competition, Goryachkina won in just 10 moves after second-placed Iranian Sarasadat Khademaisharieh misplayed the Queen’s Gambit Declined and resigned when in danger of losing a knight.
In the Open section Diptayan drew again and missed making a Grandmaster norm by half-a-point.
Leading 10th round results (Indians unless stated):
Open: Lu Shanglei (Chn, 8) bt Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 7); Mikhail Antipov (Rus, 6.5) lost to Wei Yi (Chn, 8); Aravindh Chithambaram (7) drew with Jorge Cori (Per, 7); Karen Grigoryan (Arm, 7) drew with Bai Jinshi (Chn, 7); Diptayan Ghosh (7) drew with Kamil Dragun (Pol, 6.5); Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 7) bt Paulo Bersamina (Phi, 6.5); Aleksandar Indjic (Srb, 7) bt Sayantan Das (6); Tadeas Kriebel (Cze, 6) lost to Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 7); S. L. Narayanan (6) lost to Murali Karthikeyan (7); Quinten Ducarmon (Ned, 6.5) drew with Borya Ider (Fra, 6.5); Prasanna Rao (6) lost to Irakli Beradze (Geo, 7).
Girls: Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri, 7) lost to Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus, 8.5); Zhao Mo (Chn, 7) drew with Daria Pustovoitova (Rus, 7); Ann Chumpitaz (Per, 7.5) bt Anna Iwanow (Pol, 6.5); Meri Arabidze (Geo, 6.5) drew with Padmini Rout (7); P.V. Nandhidhaa (6.5) drew with Irina Petrukhina (Rus, 6.5); Ioana Gelip (Rou, 6) lost to Srija Seshadari (7); Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 6) drew with Janelle Mae Frayna (Phi, 6); Sabina Ibrahimova (Aze, 6.5) bt V. Varshini (5.5); Cyrielle Monpeurt (Fra, 5.5) lost to Mona Khaled (6.5); Rucha Pujari (6) drew with Ivana Furtado (6); Maria Gevorgyan (Arm, 6.5) bt Michelle Catherina (5.5); Jan Jodilyan Fronda (Phi, 6) bt Madhurima Shekhar (5.5).
