Nandhidhaa Among Leaders In Girls Section

Nandhidhaa Among Leaders In Girls Section
By Arvind Aaron

The World Junior Girls Section is very interestingly poised with four players in the lead including India’s Nandhidhaa. Rueda Rodriguez (Col), Dinara Saduakassova (Kaz), Frayna Janelle Mae (Phi) are on eight points together with Nandhidhaa.

Title can be won by any of them as only two rounds remain to be played. Nerves will matter more than skill in deciding the title. Michelle Catherina is on 7.5 tied for the fifth place and Vaishali is further behind on seven points.

White won the top five boards in this section. Rueda Rodriguez shocked the leader Frayna while Michelle beat last year’s champion Buksa. Nandhidhaa shocked second seed Bivol of Russia while top seed Saduakassova beat Vaishali. It was an evenful round.

Nandhidhaa shocked Bivol in a rook ending while Saduakassova also converted in a rook ending edge against Vaishali. Michelle beat Buksa in a rook ending also. Rook endings are the most common in deciding a chess game!

Xiong Jeffery of the United States leads the Kiit sponsored World Junior by a one point margin with two rounds still to be played.

Xiong Jeffery leads with 9/11 and in joint second place are Nasuta Grzegorz of Poland and top seed Vladislav Artemiev of Russia with eight points.

Four players are in the joint fourth place on 7.5 points and it includes Aravindh Chithambaram.

Jeffery drew the top seed Russian in 40 moves to keep the lead. If Jeffery wins, he will be the first from USA to win since Tal Shaked did in 1997 at Zagan.