The going was tough and the in-form Indians failed to get going. As a result, the end of the unbeaten streaks of Padmini Rout and S.L. Narayanan in the eighth round served as a serious setback to the host’s medal hopes in the LIC World junior chess championship here on Monday.
Padmini, joint overnight leader, paid the price for her strange choice of opening against defending champion and top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina in the girls’ section.
In the Open section, second-placed Narayanan battled all the way against third-seeded Chinese Wei Yi but could not salvage half-a-point that could have given him a Grandmaster norm.
On a day when Armenia’s Karen Grigoryan upstaged fifth seed and overnight leader Jorge Cori to be part of a three-way lead with the Chinese duo of Wei Yi and Lu Shanglei at 6.5 points, the triumphant outings of Diptayan Ghosh (6) and sixth seed Vidit Gujrathi (5) brought some cheer to the home camp.
Aravindh Chithambaram (5.5) held 10th seeded Russian Grigoriy Oparin but Ankit Rajpara and Murali Karthikeyan dropped half a point each to lower-rated players.
Even in the girls’ section, there were three leaders at 6.5 points. Goryachkina was joined by the victorious duo of Poland’s Anna Iwanow and Peru’s Ann Chumpitaz.
Early problemsPadmini encountered early problems in Dutch Stonewall, but managed to keep Goryachkina at bay until a kingside offensive from the Russian proved decisive in just 34 moves.
The defeats suffered by Ivana Furtado and P.V. Nandhidhaa meant all three in-form Indian girls failed to add to their tally.
On the brighter side, Srija Seshadari drew with eighth seed Nguyen Thi Mai Hung in 81 moves and V. Varshini proved equal to 13th seeded Russian Irina Petrukhina in 42 moves to reach five points.
Leading results (eighth round, Indians unless stated): Open: Karen Grigoryan (Arm, 6.5) bt Jorge Cori (6); Wei Yi (Chn, 6.5) bt S.L. Narayanan (5.5); Lu Shanglei (Chn, 6.5) bt Benjamin Bok (Ned, 5); Quinten Ducarmon (Ned, 5) lost to Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 6).
Aravindh Chithambaram (5.5) drew with Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 5.5); Mikhail Antipov (Rus, 6) bt Anurag Mhamal (5); Diptayan Ghosh (6) bt Tadeas Kriebel (Cze, 5).
Shardul Gagare (4.5) lost to Kamil Dragun (Pol, 5.5); Balazs Csonka (Hun, 5) drew with Ankit Rajpara (5); Borya Ider (Fra, 5) drew with Murali Karthikeyan (5); Paulo Bersamina (Phi, 5.5) bt Sahaj Grover (4.5).
Girls: Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus, 6.5) bt Padmini Rout (5.5); Daria Pustovoitova (Rus, 5.5) lost to Anna Iwanow (Pol, 6.5); Marina Brunello (Ita, 5) lost to Ann Chumpitaz (6.5); Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri, 6) bt Ivana Furtado (5).
Ioana Gelip (Rou, 6) bt P.V. Nandhidhaa (5); Gu Tianlu (Chn, 4.5) lost to Zhao Mo (Chn, 5.5); Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 5) drew with Srija Seshadri (5); Sabina Ibrahimova (Aze, 5.5) bt Rucha Pujari (4.5).
Irina Petrukhina (Rus, 5) drew with V. Varshini (4.5); Janelle Mae Frayna (Phi, 5.5) bt Shweta Gole (4.5).
