YEREVAN, SEPT 20: It was a poor day for India as National champion Sunderarajan Kidambi and IWM Nisha Mohota suffered defeats in the second round of the World Junior Chess Championships yesterday.Kidambi faced Arinsom Lewis (Elo 2518) of Armenia who recently reached the second round of the Fide World Championship at Las Vegas before losing to Jan Timman. Playing black, Arinsom played the Nimzo Indian defence and did not take any chances.It was an unclear game till black placed his rook on c3 on move No 31, which confused Kidambi. He made a mistake on the 35th move and lost. Kidambi has half-a-point from two rounds.Nisha played against Tkeshelashviti Sopio of Georgia. Sopio had all the advantages in the opening itself. She chose Slav Defence, had double bishops, a queenside pawn majority and was able to push her pawn to c2 and gain a piece for the pawn. Finding no compensation, Nisha resigned in the 52nd move. Nisha has one point out of two.Sasikiran in commandVUNG TAU CITY (VIETNAM):Grandmaster norm-holder K Sasikiran drew with Liang Chang of China in the seventh round but maintained his lead in the boys section of the Asian Junior Chess Championship here.National `A' champion Sasikiran (6) was one point clear of second-placed Hafizul Hilmi (5) of Malaysia.Defending champion Tejas Bakre of India (4.5) beat Enamul Hossain (3) of Bangladesh, but he has virtually surrendered his chances of retaining the crown he won in Rasht (Iran).In the girls section, National women's champion S Vijayalakshmi (4.5) defeated Vietnam's Chao Thi Ngoc Giao (3). Top-seeded Viji started with Slav Defence, and gained advantage in the centre. She had the luxury of moving her pawn in d6. She soon went one piece up with an exchange and the Vietnamese girl resigned.Pallavi Shah (3) suffered her fourth consecutive defeat while MR Sangeetha (3) won against Constantinou Connie (1.5).China's Wang Yu (6) had a comfortable draw against Dangbich Ngoc of Vietnam to lead the girls' event. Vijayalakshmi andDang Bich Ngoc shared the third spot.
