Mobina holds Dinara

Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, Iran’s top female player, was supposed to be the top seed at the World junior girls’ chess championship here, but she opted out. According to the Iranian manager Sadat Mansouri, it was because of her busy schedule.

In her absence, Kazakhstan’s Dinara Saduakassova got the top billing. She ran into Sarasadat’s compatriot Mobina Alinasab in the second round at the KIIT University campus on Tuesday. She was held to a draw by the Iranian, in one of the most surprising results of the day, as 224 Elo points separate the two.

P.V. Nandidha of the host turned the table on seventh seed Anna Styazhkina of Russia. Another Indian, Harshita Guddanti held the sixth seed Oliwia Kiolbasa of Poland to a draw.

Among the boys, the top two seeds, Russia’s Vladislav Artemiev and American Jeffrey Xiong raced to their second wins on the trot, over India’s R. Pragnananda and Christoph Menezes of Austria, respectively.

Important results (second round; Indians unless specified): R. Pragnananda 1 lost to Vladislav Artemiev (Rus) 2; Jeffrey Xiong (USA) 2 bt Christoph Menezes (Aut) 1; Stefan Beukema (Bel) 1 lost to Kirill Alekseenko (Rus) 2; Xu Yi (Chn) 2 bt Dennis Wagner (Ger) 1; Rasmus Svane (Ger) 1.5 drew with Yuan Qingyu (Chn) 1.5; Agil Pirvediyev (Aze) 1 lost to Aravindh Chithambaram 2; Nihal Sarin 1.5 drew with Xu Yinglun (Chn) 1.5; S.L. Narayanan 2 bt Tran Minh Thang (Vie) 1.

Harsha Bharathakoti 1.5 drew with Karthikeyan Murali 1.5; Shardul Gagare 1 lost to Bozidar Ivekovic (Cro) 2; Calin Gheorghiu (Rom) 1 lost to Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 2; Aryan Gholami (Ira) 1.5 drew with Mikhail Belous (Ukr) 1.5; Utkal Ranjan Sahoo 1 lost to Irakli Berdaze (Geo) 2; Masoud Mosadeghpour (Ira) 1.5 drew with Anish Gandhi 1.5; M. Barath Kalyan 1 lost to N.R. Visakh 2; Parham Maghsoodloo (Ira) 1.5 bt Davaaochir Nyamdorj (Can) 1; Cristobal Henriquez Villagra (Chi) 1.5 bt Tom Rydstrom (Swe) 0.5; Noel Studer (Swe) 0.5 lost to Ankit Gajwa 1.5; Rakesh Kumar Jena 1.5 bt Pier Luigi Basso (Ita) 0.5; Grzegorz Nasuta (Pol) 1.5 bt Parab Ritviz 0.5.

Girls: Dinara Saduakassova (Kaz) 1.5 drew with Mobina Alinasab (Ira) 1.5; Uurtsaikh Uuriintuya (Mgl) 1 lost to Alina Bivol (Rus) 2; Harshita Guddanti 1.5 drew with Oliwia Kiolbasa (Pol) 1.5; Anna Styazhkina (Rus) 1 lost to P.V. Nandidha 2; Alessia Santeramo (Ita) 1 lost to Dinara Dordzhieva (Rus) 2; Jannelle Mae Frayna (Phi) 2 bt Saina Salonika 1; Karina Ivanova (Rus) 2 bt R. Vaishali 1; V. Varshini 1 lost to Nataliya Buksa (Ukr) 2; G.K. Monisha 2 bt Gu Tianlu (Chn) 1; Shree Ayinala (USA) 1 lost to Ashritha Eswaran (USA) 2; Michelle Catherina 2 bt K. Priyanka 1.

Pratyusha Bodda 1.5 bt Hajra Chandreyee 1; Paula Rodriquez Rueda (Col) 1.5 bt Javiera Belen Barerra Gomez (Chi) 0.5; Tijana Blagojevic (Mne) 1.5 bt G. Lasya 0.5; Priyanka Nutakki 1.5 bt Diana Omurbekova (Kgz) 0.5; Irina Barchuk (Ukr) 0.5 lost to Parnali Dharia 1.5; Ellen Kakulidis (Den) 0.5 lost to M. Mahalakshmi 1.5; Injac Teodora (Srb) 1 bt Amy Hoare (Eng) 0.5; P. Bala Kannamma 0.5 drew with Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (Uzb) 0.5; Shania Mae Mendoza (Phi) 0 lost to bt Sakshi Chitlange 1.