Focus on Humpy, Hari

OROPESA DEL MOR (SPAIN), OCT 25: World under-12 girls' champion Koneru Humpy (India) is set to begin the defence of her title with a 1st ...

OROPESA DEL MOR (SPAIN), OCT 25: World under-12 girls’ champion Koneru Humpy (India) is set to begin the defence of her title with a 1st round game against Romania’s Iulia Locau-Rodean as the World Chess Championships for boys’ and girls’ gets under way at this Spanish city today.

Top seed Humpy, who won the world crown last year in Spain, will hope to continue in style at her happy hunting ground in the u-12 category, which features another Indian, Eesha Karavade, who meets Soylu Basak (Turkey) in the opening round.

The championship, to be played in five categories — u-10, u-12, u-14, u-16, u-18 — in both boys and girls section, will see ten World champions being crowned at the end of the 11-round Swiss system.

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Young prodigy Tania Sachdev will lead India’s challenge in girls u-14 category. Tania, who won a bronze medal in the u-12 event in the previous championship, will meet France’s Melissa Levocic in the 1st round.

Tania will face a challenge from, among others, teammate Shraddha Somani, whoopens her campaign against Nesrin Gokdemir of Turkey.

The other Indian girls in fray are, Soumya Swaminathan (u-10), Y Pratibha (u-16) and Aarthie Ramaswamy (u-18).

Soumya is pitted against Luong Huyen Ngoc (Vietnam), Pratibha meets Katarina Jonoska and Aarthie faces Austrian Nadine Jauk.

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In the boys’ section, Indian hopes rely on P Harikrishna, who is vying for the World title in the u-16 category.

Harikrishna opens his campaign with white pieces against local lad Oscar Gutierrez Castillo.

Rahul Sangma (u-10), Sunil Rangarajan (u-12), MR Venkatesh (u-14) and Valay Parikh (u-18) will be the other Indian boys trying their luck.

Delhi Traffic Police issue advisory for Dussehra, Ramlila from today: Check timing

Cities1 hr ago

As the festival season sets in with Dussehra, and devotees are expected to flock to Ramleela Ground and the Red Fort areas, the Delhi Traffic Police issued an advisory Sunday, saying they will close some routes from Monday until October 3.

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