World Junior Chess Championship: Ashwath Stuns Top Seed Abhimanyu Mishra

The talented S. Ashwath stole the show while handling top seed Abhimanyu Mishra of the United States a defeat in the fourth round of the on-going World Junior Chess championship in Gandhinagar on Wednesday. (More Sports News)

It was a finely crafted game by Ashwath who got an early opening initiative out of a Siclian Najdorf with white.

Ashwath made his forces dance to his tune in the middle game that had a lot of complications and eventually invaded the queen side of his rival with his queen and both rooks to force the tie in his favour.

For Abhimanyu, the youngest Grandmaster ever in the world, this was the second defeat after his first round loss and the top seed now has a lot of catching up to do.

Meanwhile Jose Gabriel Cordoso of Columbia emerged the sole leader with four points from as many games defeating Gleb Dudin of Hungary with black pieces.

It was an intense game wherein the Columbian player got through thanks to a well calculated attack on the opponent’s king.

Mayank Chakraborty and A R Ilamparthy are behind the leader on 3.5 points. The highest rated Indian Pranav Anand also kept himself in contention defeating compatriot Manish Anton Cristiano.

In the girls' section, Divya Deshmukh lost her lead position as she was held to a draw by Sofia Hryzlova of Switzerland.

Narmin Abdinova of Azerbaijan emerged as the sole leader defeating Liya Kurmangaliyeva of Kazakhstan.

The Indian challenge here comes from Divya, R Kashturi Bhai and V Rindhiya who are all on 3.5 points each from their four games.

Important and Indian results (Round 4): (Indians unless specified): Open: Dudin Gleb (Hun, 3) lost to Cardoso Jose Gabriel (Col, 4); Mayank Chakraborty (3.5) drew with

Nogerbek Kazybek (Kaz, 3.5); Anuj Shrivatri (3) drew with Siddharth Jagadeesh (Sgp, 3); Davtyan Arsen (Arm, 3) drew with Jan Subelj (Slo, 3); Avinash Ramesh (3) drew

with Luka Budisavljevic (Srb, 3); Harishit Pawar (3) drew with Quizon Daniel (Phi, 3); A R Ilamparthi (3.5) beat Rybka Simon (Svk, 2.5); Prraneeth Vuppala (3) drew with

Ayush Sharma (3); S Ashwath (3) beat Abhimanyu Mishra (USA, 2); Manish Anto Cristiano (2) lost to Pranav Anand (3); Avila Pavas Santiago (Col, 2) lost to Adireddy Arjun (3); L R Srihari (2.5) drew with S Harshad (2.5); Aditya Samant (3) beat Smirnov Mark (Kaz, 2); Alekhya Mukhopadhyay (2) lost to L Srihari (3); Wafa Hamed (Egy, 2) lost to Kalyani Sirin (3); Apoorv Kamble (2) lost to V S Nandish (3); Nainys Zanas (Ltu, 2) lost to Sambit Panda (3); Sanket Chakravarty (3) beat Sri Charan Sandipagu (2);

Girls: Divya Deshmukh (3.5) drew with Sofia Hryzlova (Sui, 3.5); Narmin Abdinova (Aze, 4) beat Liya Kurmangaliyeva (Kaz, 3); Xeniya Balabayeva (Kaz, 3.5) drew with V Rindhiya (3.5); Beloslava Krasteva (Bul, 3.5) beat Devindya Gunawardhana (Sri, 2.5); Bhagyashree Patil (2.5) lost to Norman Kseniya (Fid, 3.5); Kashthuri Bhai (3.5) beat Kaldarova Ayaulym (Kaz, 2.5); Wikar Martyna (Pol, 3) beat Yashvi Jain (2.5); Khairmode Dhanashree (2) lost to Rakshitta Ravi (3); Mrittika Mallick (3) beat Ishvi Aggarwal (2); Singgih Diajeng Theresa (Ina, 2) lost to G Tejaswini (3); Bhat Sannidh i Ramakrishna (2) lost to Sneha Halder (3) ; Sulyok Eszter (Hun, 1,5) lost to Chinnam Vyshnavi (3); Swara Lakshmi S Nair (2.5) beat Rejepova Jahan (Tkm, 1.5); B Kirthika (1.5) lost to Sherali Pattnaik (2.5); Varshita Jain (1.5) lost to S Kanishka (2.5); Natura Bethi (1.5) lost to Anupam M Sreekumar (2.5); S Padmini (1.5) lost to Ashita Jain (2.5).