World Junior Chess: Divya Deshmukh rises to joint lead

Gandhinagar, Jun 6 (PTI) Woman Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh scored a crushing victory over Narmi Abdinova of Azerbaijan to emerge as the sole leader on 4.5 points in the World Juniors Girls' Chess Championship here on Thursday.

Deshmukh registered a regulation yet a finely crafted victory over overnight sole leader Abdinova. The English opening by Divya might have been a minor surprise and Abdinova decided to take things under her control early.

However, this meant a permanent dent in the pawn structure on the queen side and the Azerbaijani believed she was still having chances thanks to some tactical complications that ensued.

As things turned out, Divya simply ignored black's counter play on the queen side and went for the king sacrificing a knight in the process and soon enough, black's king was gasping for breath going as far as the fourth rank. It was a checkmate on board in a mere 28 moves.

Grandmaster Pranav Anand bounced back in the reckoning, scoring over Anuj Shrivatri in a long drawn endgame that he obviously know better than his opponent.

Joes Gabriel Cardoso Cardoso of Columbia now shares the lead with kazybek Nogirbek of Kazakhstan on 4.5 points out of a possible five. Pravan Anand is right behind them on 4 points with six rounds still to be played in the event that decides the best U-20 player in the world.

The game between Jose Gabriel and Mayank Chakraborty was drawn in no time. The Indian chose the Berlin defense and faced a topical variation that gave white some optical attacking chances. The Columbian sacrificed a piece to find the black king moving around but in the end it was just worth a draw.

Top results round 5 (Indians unless stated): Jose Gabriel Cardoso Cardoso (Col, 4.5) drew with Mayank Chakraborty (4); Nogerbek Kazybek (Kaz, 4.5) beat A R Ilamparthi (3.5); L Srihari (3) lost to Aleksey Grebnev (Fid, 4); Pranav Anand (4.5) beat Anuj Shrivatri (3.5); Aleksandr Domalchuk-Jonasson (Isl, 4) drew with Dudin Gleb (Hun, 4); Siddharth Jagadeesh (Sgp, 3) lost to L M S T De Silva (Sri, 4); Jan Subelj (Slo, 3.5)) drew with Sanket Chakravarty (3.5); Ayush Sharma (3.5) drew with Emin Ohanyan (Arm, 3.5); Tobias Koelle (Ger, ) Avinash Ramesh; Adireddy Arjun (3.50 drew with Aditya Samant (3.5); Luka Budisavljevic (Srb, 3.5) drew with Harshit Pawar (3.5); Kalyani Sirin (3) lost to Marius Fromm (Ger, 4); Quizon Daniel (Phi 4) beat S Aswath (3); Gubatayev Ahmet (Tkm, 3) lost to Prraneeth Vuppala (4); V S Nandish (4) beat Arsen Davtyan (Arm, 3); Santiago Lopez Rayo (Col,2.5) lost to L R Srihari (3.5); S Harshad Mamikon (2.5) lost to Mamikon Gharibyan (Arm, 3.5); Pham Tran Gia Phuc (Vie, 3.5) beat Tymur Keleberda (Can, 2.5); Sushanth Kamabathula (2.5) lost to Stribuk Artiom (Fid, 3.5); Simon Rybka (Svk, 3.5) beat Mrithyunjay Mahadevan; Tarun Kanyamarala (Irl, 3.5) beat Ang Ern Jie Anderson (Mas, 2.5).

Girls: Divya Deshmukh (4.5) beat Narmin Abdinova (Aze, 4); Mariam Mkrtchyan (Arm, 4) drew with R Kashthuri Bhai (4); V Rindhiya (4) drew with Beloslava Krasteva (Bul, 4); Norman Kseniya (Fid, 4) drew with Balabayeva Xeniya (Kaz); Sofia Hryzlova (Sui, 3.5) lost to Ayan Allahverdiyeva (Aze, 4.5); Liya Kurmangaliyeva (Kaz, 3) lost to Lucia Striskova (Svk, 4); G Tejaswini (3) lost to Martyna Wikar (Pol, 4); Rakshitta Ravi (3,5) drew with Lala Shohradova (Tkm); Sachi Jain (4) beat Meryem Agajanova (Tkm, 3); Anastasia Grozdanovic (Srb, 3.5) drew with Milena Gasparyan (Arm, 3.5); Chinnam Vyshnavi (3) lost to Mrittika Mallick (4); Sneha Halder (3) lost to Anna Zhurova (Fid, 4); Kaldarova Ayaulym (Kaz, 3.5) beat Shubhi Gupta (2.5); Sabina Rzali (Aze, 3) drew with Bhagyashree Patil (3); Arshiya Das (23) drew with Nia Donghvani (Geo, 23); S Kanishka (2.5) lost to Swara Lakshmi S Nair (3.5); Anupam M Sreekumar (2.5) lost to Mrudul Dehankar (3.5); Gunawardhana Devindya Oshini (Sri, 3.5) beat Divyabharathi Masanam (2.5) Yashvi Jain (3.5) beat Sherali Pattnaik (2.5). PTI Cor AH AH