Top seeded Russian Vladimir Fedoseev provided a twist to the tale in the Open section before his compatriot and defending girls’ champion Aleksandra Goryachkina retained her title with a round to spare in the LIC World junior chess championship here on Saturday.
In the 12th and penultimate round, Fedoseev outplayed overnight leader third seed Wei Yi in 35 moves to catch up with the Chinese at nine points. Also joining the top spot were China’s Lu Shanglei and Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
With four players tied for lead, the final round on Sunday is expected to provide a thrilling finale.
In contrast, the girls’ title stood decided after Goryachkina punished Srija Seshadri for a late inaccuracy to win in 52 moves. The 16-year-old’s ninth victory — sixth in succession — raised her tally to 10.5 for an unbeatable lead of 1.5 points. Though India’s chances of a medal in the Open section ended, the pattern of results in the girls’ section kept alive hopes of Padmini Rout finishing on the podium.
Padmini drew with lower-rated Polish girl Anna Iwanow and she is part of a five-player group at eight points sharing the fourth spot.
Given Padmini’s good tie-break score, a victory coupled with a favourable sequence of final-round results on the leading boards, may well bring a medal for the sixth seed.
In the Open section, Vidit Gujrathi let Murali Karthikeyan off the hook after failing to make the most reaching the end game with an extra pawn in the rook-and-pawn ending. Though most of the leading Indians remained unbeaten on this day, N. Srinath (8) played to his potential to outwit 11th-seeded Vladislav Kovalev, rated over 100 points above at 2548.
Leading 12th round results (Indians unless stated):
Open: Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 9) bt Wei Yi (Chn, 9); Lu Shanglei (Chn, 9) drew with Kamil Dragun (Pol, 8.5); Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 9) bt Jorge Cori (Per, 8); Murali Karthikeyan (8) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (8); Quinten Ducarmon (Ned, 8) drew with Aleksandar Indjic (Srb, 8); Aryan Tari (Nor, 8) drew with Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 8); Ankit Rajpara (7.5) drew with Bai Jinshi (Chn, 8); Aravindh Chithambaram (7.5) drew with Benjamin Bok (Ned, 7.5); Karen Grigoryan (Arm, 7.5) drew with Anurag Mhamal (7.5); N. Srinath (8) bt Vladislav Kovalev (Blr, 7); Diptayan Ghosh (7.5) drew with Borya Ider (Fra, 7.5).
Girls: Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus, 10.5) bt Srija Seshadri (8); Sabina Ibrahimova (Aze, 7.5) lost to Ann Chumpitaz (Per, 9); Meri Arabidze (Geo, 7.5) lost to Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri, 8.5); Anna Iwanow (Pol, 8) drew with Padmini Rout (8); Marina Brunello (Ita, 8) bt Daria Pustovoitova (Rus, 7.5); Zhai Mo (Chn, 7.5) drew with Ivana Furtado (7.5); Ioana Gelip (Rou, 7) lost to Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva (Uzb, 8); Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 7) drew with G. K. Monnisha (7); Cyrielle Monpeurt (Fra, 6.5) lost to Irina Petrukhina (Rus, 7.5); M. Mahalakshmi (7.5) bt Mona Khaled (Egy, 6.5).
