Soumya Swaminathan emerged as the only leader after the girl’s 10th round of the World junior chess championship after defeating fellow overnight leader Romania’s Iozefina Paulet at Puerto Madryn, Argentina, on Saturday.
Soumya’s fifth straight victory raised her tally to eight points. She is half a point ahead of her 11th round rival Russia’s Zoja Severiukhina. Three more rounds remain.
In the open section, Indians continued to struggle. Only Aswin Jayaram and Shyam Sundar won their games to catch up with three other teammates – B. Adhiban, M. R. Lalith Babu and P. Karthikeyan – at 5.5 points.
The results (10th round, involving Indians): Open: Mikhail Zaslavsky (Isr, 2392) drew with B. Adhiban (5.5); Ulvi Bajarani (Aze, 5.5) drew with M. R. Lalith Babu (5.5); Bryan Macias Burillo (Ecu, 5.5) drew with P. Karthikeyan (5.5); Vishnu Prasanna (5) drew with Mustafa Yilmaz (Tur, 5); Clement Houriez (Fra, 4.5) lost to Aswin Jayaram (5.5); Shyam Sundar (5.5) bt Peter Kokol (4.5).
Girls: Iozefina Poulet (Rou, 7) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (8); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (6.5) bt Olga Kalinina (Ukr, 5.5); Padmini Rout (5.5) drew with Nargiz Umudova (Aze, 5.5); Mary Ann Gomes (5) drew with Melina Herrera (Col, 5); Kubra Orturk (Tur, 5.5) bt S. Harini (4.5).
