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Soumya wins World junior crown

— File Photo

Soumya Swaminathan.

NEW DELHI: Amid mounting suspense, Soumya Swaminathan scored a much-needed final-round victory to become the girls’ champion in the World junior chess championship at Puerto Madryn, Argentina, on Tuesday.

Soumya, seeded nine, topped a three-way tie on superior tie-break after aggregating 9.5 points in the premier 13-round contest. Peru’s Deysi Cori Tello and Turkey’s Betul Cemre Yildiz matched Soumya’s tally but followed the champion on the podium, in that order.

The 36-move triumph made Soumya the third Indian girl, and second in succession, to win the coveted crown. K. Humpy (2001) and D. Harika (2008) were the other winners. The Pune-based Soumya entered the competition by virtue of winning the National junior girls’ title in 2008.

Starting the day in the joint second place, Soumya won her third board game against Turkey’s Kubra Ozturk. On the top board, Kiran Manisha Mohanty did Soumya a favour by holding the overnight leader Betul Cemre Yildiz in 24 moves.

The open title went to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) who pipped Sergie Zhigalko (Belarus) on tie-break score after the players tied at 10.5 points.

For the Indian boys it was a disappointing show after having swept the gold and silver in the last edition of the championship in Turkey.

The results (13th round, involving Indians):

Open: B. Adhiban (6.5) lost to Luis Fernando Ibarra Chami (Mex, 7.5); M.R. Lalith Babu (7.5) bt Julius Garnelis (Ltu, 6.5); Aswin Jayaram (7.5) bt Pablo Salinas Herrera (Chi, 6.5); P. Karthikeyan (7.5) bt Ulvi Bajarani (Aze, 6.5); Shyam Sundar (6.5) drew with Thibaut Maenhout (Bel, 6.5); Tero Lehtimaki (Fin, 5.5) lost to Vishnu Prasanna (6.5).

Girls: Kiran Manisha Mohanty (8) drew with Betul Cemre Yildiz (Tur, 9.5); Soumya Swaminathan (9.5) bt Kubra Ozturk (Tur, 9.5); Mary Ann Gomes (7) lost to Zhang Xiaowen (Chn, 9); Inna Ivakhinova (Rus, 7.5) drew with Padmini Rout (8); S. Harini (5.5) lost to Camila Colombo (Uru, 6.5).

Indians standings: Open: 20. Lalith, 22. Karthikeyan, 24. Aswin, 40. Adhiban, 41. Shyam Sundar, 44. Vishnu.

Girls: 1. Soumya, 8. Padmini, 10. Kiran, 19. Mary, 34. Harini.

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