Humpy relegated to joint fourth place

Woman Grandmaster Koneru Humpy slipped to joint fourth position after losing to Zhao Xue of China in the 11th round of the World junior chess championship in Athens.

Three players including Zhoa, WGM Lilit Mkrtchian of Armenia and Nana Dzagnidge of Georgia emerged leaders in the girls' section with eight points each, relegating Humpy to the joint fourth spot along with three others, on 7.5 points.

Humpy, who has had a topsy-turvy run in the tournament, is still in with a chance to win the championship provided she wins her matches in the remaining two rounds.

In the next round, Humpy will take on International Woman Master Zamina Olga of Russia.

In the boys' event, top seed Chinese FIDE Master Ni Hua shot into sole lead after outclassing IM Sargissen Gabriel of Armenia with black pieces. GM Levon Aronian of Armenia and GM Peter Acs of Hungary elevated themselves to the joint second position with outstanding victories over International Masters Navara David of the Czech Republic and Gagunashvili Merab of Georgia.

The only Indian boy in contention for top honours is P Magesh Chandran, who put his previous round loss behind, to beat IM Amon Simutowe of Zambia to tally seven points. The win also assured Chandran of an 11-game IM norm.

Playing black against Zhao, Humpy opened with the Nimzo Indian defence against the queen pawn and a slight inaccuracy in the middlegame led to a superior position for the first player.

Humpy tried her best to complicate the position with repeated pawn sacrifice on the queenside but Zhao knew where her strength lay in the middlgame.

With an excellent display of piece-play, Zhao did not let her grip slacken on the position and continued making forays in Humpy's camp with her pieces.

It was already late when Humpy got her defensive act together as the damage was already done. With a firm control in the centre, Zhao manoeuvred her knight effectively to win a couple of queenside pawns and then restrained Humpy from making a worthwhile progress on the Kingside.

Humpy was forced to exchange a pair of Rooks and her counter-play subsided with every move thereon. On the 60th move Humpy lost a piece and resigned immediately.

IWM S Meenakshi (7) defeated Jurkiewicz Katarzyn of Poland with white pieces while double Woman Grandmaster norm holder Aarthie Ramaswamy (6) drew with IWM Maria Sargeea of Kazakhastan.

IM Tejas Bakre lost a keenly contested game against Berg Emanuel of Sweden with white pieces to remain on 6.5 points. ejas has lost 14 valuable ELO points so far from the championship and only an inspired performance in the last two rounds can make amends for the two-time Asian Junior Champion.

M R Venkatesh (5.5) lost to Du Shan (6.5) of China while K Rathnakaran (5) defeated Ribeiro Luis Landei (4).