India ensure two gold

In second place are Iran’s H Tofighi and U Azamatkozuba of Kazakhstan with five points each and only two rounds to go.

In the girls’ under-10 section, Sindhu assured herself of a gold with an upset win over B Jing (5.5) of China in Reti Opening with white pieces. Sindhu is 1.5 points ahead of Jing and needs only a draw from two rounds to emerge the youngest girls’ champion in Asia.

While two of the youngest from the Indian contingent were on a high, Abhijeet Gupta (boys’ under-12); P Harikrishna (boys’ U-14) and Tania Sachdev (girls’ U-14) continued to lead in their respective sections.

Abhijeet (5.5) drew with compatriot G Rohit (4.5) to emerge as a sole leader. Close on heels was R Ozhumabaev of Kazakhstan with five points. The Kazakh drew his seventh round game with J Maroofi (5).

Reigning Asian under-14 boys’ champion Harikrishna (6.5) outsmarted SJ Alavimoghadam of Iran in Sicilian Irregular with white pieces to be lone contender at the top of his section.

Harikrishna is followed by Iran’s H Rahmasebi (5.5) and the Indian needs just two draws from as many games to retain his crown.

Promising Tania Sachdev (5) drew with Vietnam’s M H Luone(4.5) in Sicilian Defence with black pieces, to share the top position in girls’ under-14 section with Kazakhstan’s D Tuitebaeva.

Tuitebaeva snatched a full point from Yi Yun (4) of China to emerge as joint leader.

RESULTS (Round VII)

BOYS U-14: P Harikrishna (6.5) bt SJ Alavimoghadam (4, Iran); H Tahamsebi (5.5, Iran) drew M Ghadirian (4.5, Iran); Sayantan Dutta (4.5) drew HR Amini (4, Iran). U-12: Abhijeet Gupta (5.5) drew G Rohit (4.5); J Maroofi (4.5) drew R Ozhumabaev (5); O Guangyao (5) bt A Esenov (4, Turkmenistan). U-10: Abhinav Mekala (7) bt Sh Sadeh (4, Iran); H Tofighi (5, Iran) bt O Duskuzhanov (4.5, Kazakhstan); U Azamatkozubai (5) bt A Abdullah Zadeh (3.5, Iran).

GIRLS: U-14: M Luong (4.5) drew Tania Sachdev (5); D Tuitebaeva (5) bt Yi Yun X (4, China); Eesha Karavade (4.5) drew Dianat S (4.5, Iran).

U-12: QA Nguyen (6, Vietnam) bt LY Jing (4, China); A Pourkashian (5, Iran) bt J Tilenbaeva (4, Kazakhstan); Krutika Nadig (4.5) bt S Zulaikma (3, Malaysia).