Chithamabaram holds Cori; Chinese take control of World Junior

PUNE: Grandmaster-in-waiting Aravindh Chithamabaram played out a nerve-wrecking draw with Peruvian Grandmaster Jorge Cori while Chinese duo of Lu Shanglei and Wei Yi took control with fine victories in the 10th round of the world junior chess championship.
Chithambaram enjoyed a favourable position for a long time but eventually saved the game by the skin of the teeth as Cori tried hard for over five hours before splitting the point through repetition of moves.
Meanwhile Lu Shanglei defeated top seed Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia while Wei Yi dispatched another Russian Mikhail Antipov to set the pace for the final three round of the championship.
Both Chinese players emerged as co-leaders on eight points each and they both now enjoy a full point lead over nearest rivals that include Chithambaram, Diptayan Ghosh and Ankit Rajpara.
In the last three rounds, it looks more like a race between the two leaders now as others are far away. There are as many as 11 players in joint third spot on seven points and India's highest ranked Grandmaster here Vidit Gujrathi is among those who have 6.5 points.
In the girls' championship being held simultaneously, defending champion Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia surged ahead winning in mere 10 moves against nearest rival Sarasadat Khademalsharieh of Iran.
Out of a Queen pawn opening a reckless move by Khademalsharieh led to disaster as Goryachkina forcibly won a piece to take her tally to an impressive 8.5 points out of a possible ten. The Russian is now followed by Ann Chumpitaz of Peru on 7.5 points and India's Padmini Rout is on the joint third spot tallying seven points in all.
With three rounds here too, the Gold may seem out of reach for anyone with Goryachkina in command but a good finish can propel Rout to a podium finish. In her tenth round game, Rout played out a draw with Meri Arabidze of Georgia.
Among other Indian girls in the fray, Srija Seshadri stunned Ioana Gelip of Italy to jump to seven points as well.
The other players sharing the third spot are Daria Pustovoitova of Russia, Zhai Mo of China and Khademalsharieh.
Important results round 10 (Indians unless specified): Lu Shanglei (Chn, 8) beat Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 7); Mikhail Antipov (Rus, 6.5) lost to Wei Yi (Chn, 8); Aravindh Chithambaram (7) drew with Jorge Cori (Per, 7); Karen Grigoryan (Arm, 7) drew with Bai Jinshi (Chn, 7); Diptayan Ghosh (7) drew with Kamil Dragun (Pol, 7); Duda Jan-Krzysztof (Pol, 7) beat Paulo Bersamina (Phi, 6.5); Aleksandar Indjic (Srb, 7) beat Sayantan Das (6); Kriebel Tadeas (Cze, 6) lost to Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 7); S L Narayanan (6) lost to Ankit Rajpara (7); Christopher Repka (Svk, 6.5) drew with Murali Karthikeyan (6.5); Ducarmon Quinten (Ned, 6.5) drew with Ider Borya (Fra, 6.5); Prasanna Raghuram Rao (6) lost to Irakli Beradze (Geo, 6); Vidit Gujrathi (6.5) beat Linus Johansson (Swe, 5.5); Nr Visakh (6) drew with Benjamin Bok (Ned, 6); Csonka Balazs (Hun, 6.5) beat Idani Pouya (Iri, 5.5); Ulvi Bajarani (Aze, 6.5) beat Niranjan Navalgund (5.5); N Srinath (6) drew with Marco Codenotti (Ita, 6); Robin Van Kampen (Ned, 5.5) drew with B Kumaran (5.5); Toms Kantans (Lat, 5.5) drew with Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (5.5); Viacheslav Borisenko (Ukr, 5) lost to Anurag Mhamal (6); M G Gahan (5.5) drew with Ben Artzi Ido (Isr, 5); Shardul Gagare (5.5) drew with Yogesh Gautam (5.5); M Chakravarthi Reddy (5.5) drew with Vignesh Nr (5.5); Bart Von Meijenfeldt (Ned, 6) beat Mohammad Ashraf (5).
Girls: Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri, 7) lost to Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus, 8.5); Zhai Mo (Chn, 7) drew with Daria Pustovoitova (Rus, 7); Ann Chumpitaz (Per, 7.5) beat Anna Iwanow (Pol, 6.5); Meri Arabidze (Geo, 6.5) drew with Padmini Rout (7); P V Nandhidhaa (6.5) drew with Irina Petrukhina (Rus, 6.5); Ioana Gelip (Rou, 6) lost to Srija Seshadri (7); Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 6) drew with Mae Frayna Janelle (Phi, 6); Sabina Ibrahimova (Aze, 6.5) beat V Varshini (5.5); Monpeurt Cyrielle (Fra, 5.5) lost to Mona Khaled (Egy, 6.5); Rucha Pujari (6) drew with Ivana Maria Furtado (6); Maria Gevorgyan (Arm, 6.5) beat Michelle Catherina (5.5); Fronda Jan Jodilyn (Phi, 6) beat Madhurima Shekhar (5.5); Vlada Sviridova (Rus, 5) lost to Marina Brunello (Ita, 6); B Pratyusha (5) lost to Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva (Uzb, 6); R Vaishali (6) beat Aysa Imeeva (Rus, 5); P Supreetha (6) beat Tea Gueci (Ita, 5); Gu Tianlu (Chn, 5.5) drew with Mila Zarkovic (Srb, 5); Larissa Ichimura G. Barbosa (Bra, 4.5) lost to M Mahalakshmi (5.5); Jessica Bengtsson (Swe, 4.5) lost to G K Monnisha (5.5); Karina Azimova (Rus, 4.5) lost to Shweta Gole (5.5); Harshita Guddanti (4.5) lost to J Saranya (5.5).