World Youth Chess Championship-Antalya,Turkey   

By D.V.Prasad, International Master

It was a day of mixed fortune for India after the end of the 4th round. Notable performers were Aryan Chopra ,Murali Karthikeyan , Harshal Shahi, Vaibhav Suri, Vidit Gujrathi and S.P.Sethurman while players including Girish Kaushik and Shardul Gagare in U-12, B.Adhiban in U-18 ended on a losing note. In the girls section Basni, Lasya, Prathyusha Bodda, Ivano Furtado and Tejawin Sagar kept the Indian hopes alive while Mahalakshmi suffered a setback in U-10 girls against WFM Anna Styazkhina in the top board.

Delhi youngster Aryan Chopra made his presence felt in the tournament by beating Carlos Mercedo in an opening preparation to shoot into joint lead with 4 points in the U-8 section. Murali Karhikeyan and Harshal Shahi also continued their good run by scoring crucial victories and moved to 3.5 points apiece in the U-10 section.

Another Delhi youngster Vaibhav Suri was on a roll when he carved out a neat finish against Saral Vashap in the top board of the U-12 section and shot into the joint lead with 4 points . Tejas Ravichandran continued his good run by drawing his game on top board in a hard fought Sicilian encounter in the U-14 section.

National Sub Junior Champion Vidit Gujrathi played an excellent game in the black side of Sicilian Classical to score a deserving victory against Sochacki Christophe while S.P.Sethuraman also was at his best while outwitting Haik Vardanian. Both the players are jointly leading with 4 points in theU-16 section. Aditya Udeshi and Debashis Das are closely following the leaders with 3.5 points each.

Goli Lasya continued her great form by disposing of WFM Haussernot Cecile to lead the table jointly with 4 points in the U-12 girls section. She handled a complicated middle game flawlessly to wrest the point while her AP statemate Prathyusha Bodda erred in a better position to squander the initiative and was forced to share the point with Dinara Saduakassova and logged 3.5 points in the U-14 girls section.

Prathima Bansi stayed in contention for the top places by drawing her 4th round game against Li Yunshan and taking her tally to 3.5 points in the U-8 girls section.

Ivano Furtado and Tejaswini Sagar scored facile victories over Avramidou Anastasia and Nominerdene respectively thereby sharing 2nd spot in the U-10 girls by moving to 3.5 points .
WIM Shalmali Gagare came back in the reckoning in the U-16 girls section with a hard earned victory to reach 3 points while WIM Padmini Rout got the better of National Sub Junior girls champion WFM Rucha Pujari . WFM Bakthi Kulkarni bounced back in the tournament by scoring over WFM Gulmar Mammadova to take her tally to 3 points .

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