Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian settled the issue with amazing ease and walked away with the boys title, in the World Junior Boys and Girls Chess Championship, here on Friday.WGM Zhao Xue emerged supreme among girls as defending champion Koneru Humpy, despite earning same points as her Chinese opponent, lost the top position due to a poor average rating.However, India’s latest GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly saved the blushes for his country claiming a bronze, winning his last round against Russian IM Artymom Timofeev (9).Ganguly’s medal-winning show becomes more significant because it is the second only after Vishwanathan Anand’s gold medal haul at the same championship held in 1987 at Baggio (Philippines).Aronian, who has been displaying terrific form since last three rounds, accounted for Russian GM Dimtri Jakovenko on Friday. Still Aronian downplayed his form. ‘‘You also need luck to win when you are playing incredibly well. Form could not be a decisive factor alone.’’ Girls top seed Xue needed no extra efforts to outwit India’s latest WIM Dronavali Harika even as Humpy completed her demolition act on the neighbouring board.‘‘I did not bother to have a look at the game between Harika and Xue because I was playing for a win alone.’’ Her failure in converting many a winning positions in the earlier rounds also went against her.Seveteen-year-old Xue, a product of Beijing’s National Chess Academy, credited her gold to hard work. The runner-up at the 2001 edition said she never had a problem whatsoever in the entire meet with the only exception being a game against Austrian WIM Moser Iva.This is her major world title after under-12 and under-14 gold medals. She had an outstanding show at Bled Olympiad and World under-18 championships.
