Harika Back In Sole Lead

By Arvind Aaron

The World Junior and Girls Championships are in progress at Gaziantep, Turkey from August 2-16. After round eleven, Dronavalli Harika had reestablished her lead with a round eleven win with black over WFM Kubra Ozturk. Harika leads with 9/11. She lost the last three rounds after being in lead last year at Yerevan. This year should be different though for this Guntur girl as only two rounds remain.

Harika is on path to the title, Soumya Swaminathan has a chance of a medal as she is tied for the fourth place on 7.5. Indian scores: D. Harika 9/11, Soumya Swaminathan 7.5, Mary Ann Gomes 7, Kruttika Nadig 6.5, R. Preethi 5.5, Padmini Rout 5. Sixty seven girls and 109 boys are competing.

GM Parimarjan Negi won round eleven on August 13 against GM Li Chao of China to move to the joint second place along with GM Abhijeet Gupta and others on 8/11. Arik Braun of Germany beat GM Wesley So of the Philippines to move into sole lead with 8.5 points. With two rounds to go, we have title chances. India had won this event in 1987 at Baguio when Viswanathan Anand won it and later in 2004 at Kochi, Pentala Harikrishna won it at home.

Other Indians competing are (points after round eleven): GM G.N. Gopal, IM Ashwin Jayaram, IM Akshayraj Kore 6.5 each, GM S. Arun Prasad, IM Deep Sengupta 6 each, Vishnu Prasanna 5.5, Sahaj Grover 4.5.