Rohit in sole lead
at World Youth Chess

India's G Rohit scored his seventh victory on the trot and shot into sole lead in the under-14 boys' section of the World Youth chess championships, being played in Heraklion, Greece.

Rohit defeated Amin Bassen of Egypt in the eighth round to tally seven points and looks a clear favourite to win the crown if his onboard exploits are any indication.

Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna settled for a quick draw in the eighth round against International Master Shahriyaz Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and was joined by Grandmaster Ferenc Berkes of Hungary at the top of the table on 6.5 points.

Harikrishna, quite surprisingly, did not try very hard with his white pieces against Mamedyarov and signed the peace treaty after just nine moves when his English opening failed to get him a desirable advantage.

I Ramya Krishna also maintained her joint lead in the under-12 girls' section with a draw against Maria Ignacz of Hungary. Ramya Krishna took her tally to 6.5 points with this draw and leads alongside Ignacz, Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine and Tan Zhongyi of China.

In joint fifth place is fancied second seed Dronavalli Harika, who came back into the reckoning for top honours with a facile victory over Pham Bich Ngoc of Vietnam. Harika now has six points in her kitty.

Rohit was at his technical best in cruising past Bassen, who played with the white pieces. Once in to a dynamically balanced middle game, Rohit uncorked a brilliant exchange that caught Bassen completely off balance.

Going for the kill with his excellently placed rook and minor pieces, Rohit invaded the opposition camp and made dangerous threats. Bassen called it a day when his king came under mortal danger.

Former world under-12 champion Deep Sengupta fought back after his previous round loss in the under-14 boys section and scored a crushing victory over Alexander Fier of Brazil.

Sengupta, playing white, capitalised on a rather lacklustre play by his opponent and had little troubles in moving to the six points bracket.

Indian hopes suffered a setback in the under-10 boys' section when Parimarjan Negi blew away a winning position against Sanan Sugirov of Russia. Playing white Parimarjan comprehensively won a pawn in the middle game arising out of a Sicilian defence but blundered in the final stages of the game and failed to drive home the advantage.

The section is led by top seed Safarli Eltaz who scored yet another resounding victory in the event, getting past Ding Liren of China. Safarli is now on 7.5 points from his eight outings while Parimarjan is on 5.5.