World junior girls’ chess championship | Divya held by Mkrtchyan but continues to lead

It proved well worth the wait for Mariam Mkrtchyan, as she held Divya Deshmukh to a draw in the seventh round of the World junior girls’ chess championship at the Gift City Club

Mariam Mkrtchyan had to wait a bit for her rival to arrive on Sunday afternoon. It proved well worth the wait for the Armenian, as she held Divya Deshmukh to a draw in the seventh round of the World junior girls’ chess championship at the Gift City Club.

Mkrtchyan is seeded second alright, but she is rated some 156 points below the Nagpur girl. Their Semi-Slav Defence game lasted just 25 moves.

Divya, however, maintained her sole lead, with six points, as the second-board game between Russian Ksenia Norman and Narmin Abdinova of Azerbaijan also ended in a draw. They, along with Mkrtchyan, Ayalum Kaladorva and Rakshitta Ravi are joint second with 5.5 points.

In the Open championship, Kazakhstan’s Kazybek Nogerbek took the sole lead after beating L.M.S.T. De Silva of Sri Lanka. He is on six points, half-a-point ahead of eight players, including second-seeded Russian Aleksey Grebnev and third seed Pranav Anand.

Important results (seventh round): Open: Rudik Makarian (FIDE) 5.5 drew with Jose Gabriel Cardoso (Col) 5.5; Kazybek Nogerbek (Kaz) 6 bt L.M.S.T. De Silva (SL) 5; Marius Fromm (Ger) 4.5 lost to Aleksey Grebnev (FIDE) 5.5; Pranav Anand 5.5 bt A.R. Ilamparthi 4.5; Daniel Quizon (Phi) 5.5 bt Gleb Dudin (Hun) 4.5; Emin Ohanyan (Arm) 5.5 bt Pham Tran Gia Phuc (Vie) 4.5; V.S. Nandish 4.5 lost to Mamikon Gharibyan (Arm) 5.5; Luka Budisavljevic (Srb) 5.5 bt Vuppala Praneeth 4.5; Siddharth Jagadeesh (Sgp) 4.5 drew with Artiom Stribukk 4.5; Sambit Panda 5 bt Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux 4.

Girls: Mariam Mkrtchyan (Arm) 5.5 drew with Divya Deshmukh 6; Ksenia Norman (FIDE) 5.5 drew with Narmin Abdinova (Aze) 5.5; Ayalum Kaladorva (Kaz) 5.5 bt Mariam Mkrtchyan (Arm) 4.5; Rakshitta Ravi 5.5 bt Ayan Allahverdiyeva (Aze) 4.5; Sachi Jain 5 drew with Xeniya Balabayeva (Kaz) 5; Sofia Hryzlova (Sui) 5 drew with Anna Zhurova (FIDE) 5; Kasthuri Bhai 4.5 lost to Beloslava Krasteva (Bul) 5; Anastasia Grozdanovic (Srb) 4 lost to Meryem Agajanova (Tkm) 5. Sneha Halder 5 bt Mrittika Mallick 4; Swara Lakshmi Nair 5 bbt Bhagyashree Patil 4.