Indians Are Assured Of Both Titles

By Arvind Aaron

Three new players joined the lead, two in boys and one in girls at the end of the sixth round in the Sri Sai Ram Engineering Asian Junior Chess Championships which is being played at Hotel Vijay Park, Koyambedu, Chennai on December 11.

IM Ashwin Jayaram of Chennai and national junior champion M.R. Lalith Babu of Vijayawada won in boys to share the top place along with world under-16 champion Baskar Adhiban and world under-14 champion Vidit Gujrathi. They have five points from six rounds.

In the girls section, Mary Ann Gomes overcame Kiran Mohanty in a wild game to join Kruttika Nadig and Bhakti Kulkarni in the lead with five points after six rounds. For both sections, three rounds remain to be played. The closing ceremony is on December 14. If you did not know who is awarding the prizes, yes, it is world champion Viswanathan Anand. Do not miss the chance to meet him.

Later, in the evening, all the players visited Hotel Taj Coromandel for the AICF's felicitation to Vishy Anand. Many of them met their dream star for the first time. It included players from Bangladesh as well. "I am thrilled to have seen and shaken hands with him," said Karnataka player Niranjan Navalgund.

At the board, Adhiban accepted the draw when he was forced by Vidit to exchange queens in a dead level ending. Ashwin Jayaram won a gem of an encounter against Vishnu Prasanna to jump in the standings. Lalith Babu exploited the holes which Debashis Das provided for him in the king side to win.Bhakti Kulkarni played Nb5 to open a new box of tactics. Kruttika delved deep in the tactics and finally got a draw by creating a fortress with two bishops against queen.

With seven players leading two sections, it will be an interesting three rounds still to be played. It is unclear who will win. What is clear is that the winner will come from India in both sections