MARCH 30: Indian youngsters outsmarted their continental rivals to tighten the grip in five age groups at the Asian Youth Chess championships here.Former World under-10 champion P Harikrishna led the charge with 5.5 points in the boys' under-14 in the sixth round here on Wednesday.Abhijeet Gupta (5 points, under-12), Abhinav Mekala (6, u-10); Tania Sachdev (4.5, u-14 girls') and VK Sindhu (6, u-10) also kept the Indian tricolour flying high by taking sole possession of the top spot in their respective age groups.India's only setback came in girls' under-12 where Vietnam's QA Nguyen (5) took the clear lead leaving Krutika Nadig and Soumya Swaminathan, both on 3.5 points each, way behind.Promising Mary Ann Gomes, the only Indian among the 25 children from around the world selected to play Garry Kasparov in an Internet chess, however, remained way down in the under-12 girls' section.Harikrishna defeated H Abdulla (4) of the United Arab Emirates in Grunfeld Defence with black pieces to take a full point as well as sole lead in his section.He is being closely pursued by Iran's H Tahmasebi (5) who drew with India's Sayantan Dutta (4) with black pieces in a French Defence game.Abhijeet Gupta (5) defeated A Esenov (4) in Grunfeld Defence after winning the exchange in the middle-game.Following Gupta close behind is R Ozhumabaev (4.5) of Kazakhstan who drew with G Guanryau (4) of China in boys' under-12.Child prodigy Abhinav Mekala (6) maintained his winning spree with a classic win over Tofighi (4) of Iran in Guico Piano playing with black pieces.Tania Sachdev (4.5) had a clear advantage against Sicilian Defence of D Tuitebaeva (4) in the middle-game but she made a bad move and agreed to split the point. Despite the draw, Tania led the girls' under-14 section on an extremely good day for India.Vietnam's Nguyen (5) drew with L Tikenbaeva (4) of Kazakhstan to lead the girls' under-12 while in an all-Indian affair Krutika and Soumya drew the game.In girls' under-10, VK Sindhu beat M Paridar (3) of Iran in Winawer Variation of French Defence with black pieces.If Sindhu wins her seventh round against B Jing (5.5) of China, she will virtually bag title with two rounds to spare. The Indian girl will then require only a draw from the remaining two rounds.
