Asian Junior Chess Championships, Sharjah, UAE – Round 7

N Srinath maintained his one point lead after a win over Debashis in the seventh round of the Asian Junior Chess Championship here at Sharjah Chess Club. Sahaj Grover is in the second position with 5.5 points after a win over Syria’s Iyti Basher in the modern defence.

In the encounter between Debashis Das and Srinath, the former opted for the English opening and improvised upon the game between Ikeda and Srinath. White went on to sacrifice a piece and obtained good compensation. However, he allowed Black to complete the development and neutralise the initiative.

In the encounter with Iran’s Amir Kowsarinia, Anurag Mhamal won Black’s Queen for a Rook and a Piece. In the dynamic struggle that followed, Anurag gave back the Queen to head for Rooks & Minor pieces endgame. In spite of being down on time, Anurag accumulated errors from his opponent to clinch the win in 57 moves.

In the girls’ championship, India’s Ivana Furtado and J Saranya share the lead with Vietnam’s Thi Kim Phung Vo, all on 5.5 points. Saranya beat the overnight leader Vo in a game of oscillating fortunes. In time scramble, Saranya had the last laugh when her opponent missed a mating chance and handed back the advantage to white.

Ivana defeated compatriot Madhurima from the Black side of Sicilian Dragon formation. Madhurima went for an early aggression but Ivana sacrificed thematically to squash all hopes of white’s King side attack to win 25 moves.

Anurag wins Asian Junior Blitz

Earlier in the day, Anurag Mhamal of India, won the Asian Junior Blitz championship with 8 points from 9 games. Anurag won over GM Salem Saleh and GM Sahaj Grover in the process. Sahaj took with second place with same score in view of lesser tie-break score. The Indian duo won with a whooping two-point margin over their rivals. The winners were awarded glittering trophies and medals while the cash prize was shared. Shristi Shetty tied for the 3^rd place with 6 points in the Asian Junior Girls Blitz championship.

Round 7 results

Title	White	Points	Result	Title	Black	Points
IM	Debashis Das	4.5	lost to	IM	Narayanan Srinath	6.5
GM	Grover Sahaj	5.5	beat	IM	Iyti Basher	4.5
FM	Anurag Mhamal	5	beat	FM	Kowsarinia Amir	4

Round 7 Results (girls)

WFM	Saranya J	5.5	beat	WIM	Vo Thi Kim Phung	5.5
	Madhurima Shekhar	4.5	lost to	WIM	Ivana Maria Furtado	5.5
WFM	Pujari Rucha	4.5	lost to	WIM	Hoang Thi Nhu Y	5
	Shristi J. Shetty	4	lost to		Khursanova Farida	4.5
	Yagi Rita	3.5	lost to		Nandhidhaa Pv	4.5
WCM	Savant Riya	4.5	beat		Shyngys Kyzy Aijarkyn	3.5

Round 6 Results

IM	Narayanan Srinath	4.5	beat	FM	Kowsarinia Amir	4
IM	Debashis Das	4.5	drew with	GM	Grover Sahaj	4.5
IM	Iyti Basher	4.5	drew with	FM	Anurag Mhamal	4
FM	Tran Tuan Minh	4	beat	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	3.5

Round 6 Results (Girls)

WIM	Vo Thi Kim Phung	5.5	beat	WIM	Hakimifard Ghazal	4
WIM	Ivana Maria Furtado	4.5	drew with	WIM	Nguyen Thi Mai Hung	4.5
	Yagi Rita	3.5	lost to	WFM	Saranya J	4.5
	Nandhidhaa Pv	3.5	lost to	WFM	Pujari Rucha	4.5
WFM	Derakhshani Dorsa	3	lost to		Madhurima Shekhar	4.5
WCM	Assaubayeva Diana	4	beat		Alymbay Kyzy Aizhan	3
	Adhikari Asmita	3	lost to		Shristi J. Shetty	4
	Al Dhaffari Salma	2.5	lost to	WCM	Savant Riya	3.5