Shahil Dey takes Sole Lead

Shahil Dey takes Sole Lead
By Praful Zaveri, FIDE Instructor

The day 2 of Asian Youth Chess Championship witnessed the top guns from India faltering once again however; the silver lining emerged amongst dark clouds with younger brigade showing the way.

Let us examine the performance of Indians starting with the lowest category of this event, which is in progress at the picturesque, Kyung Hee University, Suwon, South Korea.

Under-08:
Shahil Dey took the sole lead with a perfect score at the end of round 3 while the girl’s section saw Prathivya Gupta in the joint lead with the Chinese girl, Wei Yaquing with all-win record.

Under-10
In the girl’s U10 section, Divya Deshmukh has registered impressive victories over her rivals in all the three games and is now jointly sharing the lead with Margadgua Erdenebayar of Mongolia. While the top three players in the boy’s section are placed exactly as per their seeding – top-seeded, CM Javokhir Sindarov from Uzbekistan has taken the lead with a score of 3 and is closely followed by FM Praggnanandhaa and Raunak Sadhwani with a score of 2.5

Under-12:
Erigaisi Arjun is sharing the lead jointly with top-seeded player from Iran, Alireza Firouzja and FM Ngo Duc from Vietnam with a score of 3 points however, the girl’s category is witnessing a keen contest with as many as 7-players sharing the lead with a score of 2.5/3.  This group includes top-seed, WCM Mrudal Dehankar and her Indian compatriots, 2nd seeded WCM Saina Salonika, WCM C. Lakhsmi & WCM Bommini Mounika,

Under-14:
The top-seeded Indian in this group, WFM Vaishali has registered all three victories and is now sharing the lead with Nguyen Xuan from Vietnam while the Indians in the boy’s section have to do some catching.

Under-16:
The rising star of Indian chess, Arvindh Chithambaram would like to forget this tournament very quickly if he doesn’t create his usual magic in the remaining rounds. After suffering a 2nd consecutive loss to IM Shahin L of Iran, he has finally managed to win his 3rd round encounter but needs to do lot of catching to find a place in the victory podium. Meanwhile, the lead is shared by 5-players, which includes Harsha Bharathakoti and Ritviz Parab.
A similar story is being witnessed in the girl’s category, wherein top-seeded Riya Savant lost her 3rd round encounter to lag behind the field with 1.5/3. The lead in this section is shared by 5-players, which includes Aakansha Hagawane and Chandreyee Hajra.

Under-18:
The lead in girl’s category is jointly shared by Gholami Orimi from Iran along with WFMs, Mahalakshmi and Varshini with a score of 2.5/3 while the lead in the boy’s section is taking by Mershad Khodashenas from Iran with 3 wins. Krishna Teja is jointly occupying 2nd spot with another Iranian, Masoud Mosadeghpour.