Sole Lead for India in 3-categories, Joint Lead in 1

Sole Lead for India in 3-categories, Joint Lead in 1
By Praful Zaveri, FIDE Instructor

Past the midway stage of Asian Youth Chess Championship in progress here at Kyung Hee University, Suwon, South Korea, India has taken sole lead in 3-categories (BU8, GU14 & GU16) and a joint lead in the BU12 category.
The star performer of the day was undoubtedly, R. Vaishali who has registered her 5th consecutive victory to emerge as the sole leader in Girls U14 while Akansha Hagawane has taken a lead in the Girls U16 category with a score of 4/5.

Shahil Day, the overnight leader in Boys U8 section continues to maintain his lead with a score of 4.5/5. All these 3 players are unbeaten so far.

The overview of player’s performance (top five) for each of the categories in detailed below.
Under-08:
Shahil Dey is followed by Bharath S (joint 2nd spot) and their 6th round encounter will be crucial. In the Girl’s section Prathivya Gupta is occupying the 5th position after her loss in the 5th round.

Under-10
The top-seeded, CM Javokhir Sindarov from Uzbekistan is leading the field and is pitted against Raunak Sadhwani. While Mahitosh Dey faces a stiff challenge in R Praggnanandhaa, who is on 3.5 points.
The unexpected loss of Divya Deshmukh in the 5th round pushed her to the 2nd place however; she is still within the striking distance of the leaders.

Under-12:
The 6th round encounter is certainly going to be decisive for determining the results in this group as the leader, Alireza Firouzja is pitted against Nihal Sarin while Erigaisi Arjun plays CM Batsurin from Mongolia, who is rated 200+ points below him. In the girl’s category, WCM C. Lakhsmi sharing the 2nd place jointly behind 3 leaders from Kazakhstan and Mongoia.

Under-14:
Raja Harshit failed to win his 5th round encounter wherein he had a big advantage. He shares the 3rd position jointly with Rajdeep Sarkar. In the girl’s category Samriddha Ghosh has a crucial game against Vaishali in the 6th round.

Under-16:
The day witnessed one more loss for GM Arvindh Chithambaram in Round 5 against the Vietnam player, Nguyen Dang. Harsha Bharathakoti and Ritviz Parab are in the running for a place in the podium.
Aakansha Hagawane has taken the sole lead but is in hot chase from 4 players, which includes 3-Indians and 1 Chinese. Amongst them is the top-seeded, Riya Savant.

Under-18:
Aradhya Garg and Krishna Teja are impressive in their outing so far while we see a very close race in the girl’s category