Harikrishna held in second round

Fifth seeded Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna was held to a draw by Nikita Maiorov of Belarus in the second round of the under-18 boys' section in the World Youth Chess Championships in Hereklion (Greece) on Sunday.

On a day of mixed fortunes for the 28 Indian players participating, Dronavalli Harika scored an emphatic victory over Ju Wenjun of China.

Twelve Indians registered victories, seven drew their games while the remaining went down fighting against their respective opponents.

Maintaining a clean slate after the second round are Harika and I Ramya Krishna, in the under-12 girls' section; M Manogna, in the under-10 girls' section; Aswin Jayaram, in the under-12 Boys, Deep Sengupta in under-14 boys'; Asian Junior champion Deepan Chakravarthy, in the under-16 boys, and Saheli Nath, in the under-14 girls.

After a rather subdued start that ended in a draw in the first round, Parimarjan Negi scored a crushing victory over Jacques Netzer of France to move on 1.5 points from his two games so far.

Playing white, Negi got a huge opening advantage after his opponent fell prey to a known positional trap in the Sicilian Sveshnikov.

With his knights doing a perfect tango, Negi won a piece and dragged his opponent's king out to the middle of the board to force checkmate in under two hours of play.

Another bright contender in the under-10 boys' section, Y Sandeep mishandled a clearly superior position and was held to a draw by Nahed Yann of France.

In the boys' under-14 section, Namra Haren Pandya sprang a major Surprise, beating the higher rated G Rohit.

National champion Y Sandeep had an easy outing against Sean Mccarrick of Ireland with black pieces in the under 10-boys' section.

Winning a pawn as early as on the fifth move, Sandeep gave no chance to his opponent and won a piece with a simple combination.

In the girls' Under-10, M Manogna defeated Jibek Azamatkyzy quite easily. The other Indian girls in the fray in this category, P Lakshmi Sahiti and G Madansari were held to draws by Boglarka Erdos of Hungary and Kva Zalimaitis respectively.

Pandya was the happiest Indian around after he beat compatriot Rohit, whose rating is more than 400 points higher.

Playing black, Pandya was in familiar territory of a Sicilian Sveshnikov but a few erroneous moves landed him in difficulties.

Rohit took a lot of time trying to work out an effective continuation and fumbled under time pressure.

At one point of time, both Pandya and Rohit were left with just a few seconds but the former proved to be superior in the skirmish as Rohit lost on time.

Important results (round 1):
Under-10 Boys: Y Sandeep beat Sean Mccarrick (Irl); Parimarjan Negi drew Dan Mars Ulu (Kgz); P Prachura beat Robin Dragonire.

Under-10 girls: M Manogna beat Jibek Azamatkyzy; G Madanasari drew Kva Zailimatis (Ltu); Boglarka Erdos (Hun) drew P Lakshmi Sahiti.