World junior chess: Mixed fortunes for Gandhi, Karthikeyan

PUNE: Anish Gandhi and Murali Karthikeyan have had fluctuating fortunes in the opening two rounds of the World Junior Chess Championships, but in contrasting styles.
While Kolhapur's Gandhi lost with white on Tuesday after registering one of his best results with black in the first round, Karthikeyan redeemed himself with the dark pieces after dropping a crucial point that could have earned him the GM title on Monday.
"Today's was a complicated game. I made a mistake after sacrificing a knight for three pawns," said Gandhi, after going down to compatriot SL Narayanan from Thiruvananthapuram.
Ironically, it was Gandhi, Asian Schools silver medallist in 2011 in Delhi and 2013 Under-17 state champion, who had blundered in another complicated game against Swedish FM Linus Johansson in his first match.
Tamil Nadu lad Karthikeyan has already completed his three GM norms and a win against state-mate Siva Mahadevan would have improved his Elo rating from 2499 to 2500, which would have sealed the formalities.
On Tuesday, he shrugged off the setback to score a comfortable win over Bala Chandra Prasad in 65 moves.
"It was an unusual opening and I exchanged my knight for three pawns. But I didn't convert the advantage," the Chennai boy said analysing his game. Wunderkind Nihal Sarin produced another marathon performance in holding Czech Republic's IM Tadeas Kriebal in 88 moves with black. The 10-year-old has a rating of 2076 whereas his opponent is 2428.
7 Indians lead the race
There were seven home contenders among a group of 17 who led the open section and four Indians among 11 in the girls' section.
On the top board, Russian top seed Vladimir Fedoseev with black managed to hold Romania's Bogdan-Daniel Deac in Nimzo-Indian defence.
"White didn't handle the transition from opening to middle game well. After the 25th move, black had the advantage," former player IM V Saravanan said.