Third straight win for Humpy, Aarthie, Sangma

In girl8217;s under-18 Aarthie faced the fifth seed Nadezhda Kasintseva of Russia and played the Sicilian to obtain equality. Kasintseva, however, played well to nullify the advantage and Aarthie complicated the position by sacrificing a piece to catch her rival in time pressure.

In the final minutes of sudden death Kasintseva failed to play the right moves and fell into Aarthie8217;s mating net.

Humpy once again played excellent game with white pieces against Zuzana Barosova of Slovakia. The champion developed her attack along the open F file by doubling her rooks and forced Zuzana to give up an exchange. Thereafter Humpy displayed fine endgame technique to net full point.

In the boys under-10, Rahul Sangma displayed the courage that champions are made of. Although he lost a piece in the opening for two pawns, he played energetically and improved the position of his pieces.

Sangma later won a pawn and an exchange to enter into an endgame with rook and pawn vs bishop and knight. He displayed excellent endgame skills to win the marathon battle in 86 moves.

In the Under-16 girls, Y Pratibha faced the French Defence from Austrian Christine Ertl. Pratibha attacked relentlessly on the King side and finally sacrificed a piece with Ng5 to brilliantly win the opponent8217;s queen.

P Harikrishna played the English opening and crushed Lithuanian Robertos Sakinis brilliantly in just 20 moves, but he is half a point behind the leaders in the under-16 category.

MR Venkatesh played the Sicilian Pelican Sveshnikov variation and developed his pieces menacingly on the queen side of Gilles Doubenfeld Luzembourg. Venkatesh obtained a strong advantage and displayed good technique in coverting it into a win in the under-14 section.

Valay Parikh was in fantastic form as he won in just nine moves against Serge Hovnanion of Lithuania in under-18 section.

Hovnanion fell into a basic opening trap and blundered his queen and lost.

Tania Sachdev played the Sicilian defence against Tomakataryna of Poland and the game transposed into a Dragon type of setup. Tania lost a pawn in the middle game, however, she fought well in the double rook endgame and won back the pawn to draw the game in under-14.

Another Indian in her category, Shraddha Samani, lost to Olga Iukina of Russia.

Eesha Karavade played the Dutch defence against Elitza Raeva of Bulgaria. Eesha played a good all-round game and in the final stages she brought her queen on the King side for a decisive attack. Elitza resigned on the 46th move when she could not prevent Eesha8217;s pawn from queening.