Second seed International Master P Magesh Chandran rode on luck to end the dream run of Iranian Akbarnia Ahmed Saeed and emerge joint leader on 4.5 points after the sixth round in the 26th Asian Junior chess championship in Negombo, Sri Lanka, on Wednesday.
An Indian sweep appears very much in the offing after other overnight leaders decided against taking any big risks and settled for draws among themselves.
The lead is now shared by defending champion Deepan Chakravarthy, Abhijit Gupta, Deep Sengupta, Akshayraj Kore and Magesh Chandran.
As many as six players, including India's Prathamesh Mokal, G Rohit and S Poobesh Anand, are just half a point adrift of the leaders and very much in contention with five more rounds remaining in this 11-round competition.
In the girls' section, Kolkata's Saheli Nath joined Y Pratibha in the lead with a clinical victory over compatriot Mahima Rajmohan. Both Saheli and Pratibha have five points from six games and are followed by Luong Phong Hanh of Vietnam and defending champion Tania Sachdev on 4.5 points each.
In the sixth round, Pratibha played it safe against Hanh while Tania too was involved in a deadlock against Kruttika Nadig.
A great escape by Magesh enabled him to join the leaders. Playing against the darkhorse of the event, Akbarania Syed, Magesh left his king exposed and was saddled with a defensive position for a long time.
The Iranian struck with a piece sacrifice to quickly end the game but Magesh was quite up to the task in defending. He hung on to the position and snatched the crucial full point.
The Kruttika-Tania match turned out to be a violent affair with the Pune girl throwing everything at the defending champion in a Sicilan game. But, defense being her forte, Tania hung on grimly, snatching a difficult draw in 63 moves.
The game stretched to the full distance and had spectators on their toes for a large part of the game.
The talk of the tournament was the shocking slide of WIM Dronvalli Harika as she lost her third game in six rounds today. Harika went down to the Philipino girl Kathryn Ann Cruz in 62 moves despite holding advantage in the middle game.
Results Round 6 (Indians unless specified):
Boys: Abhijit Gupta (4.5) drew Deepan Chakkravarthy ( 4.5); Deep Sengupta (4.5) drew Akshayraj Kore (4.5); Akbarnia Seyed Arash (4, Iri) lost to P Magesh Chandran (4.5); Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (4, Vie) drew S Poobesh Anand (4); G Rohit (4) drew Khamzim Olzhas (4, Kaz); Chan Tze Wei (3, Vie) lost to Prathmesh Mokal (4); D D Wijesinghe (3.5) drew D R N K B Dehigama (3.5, SL); S Arun Prasad (3.5) beat Chandrasiri Thilina (3, SL); M K Russell (2.5, SL) lost to Hoang Canh Huan (3.5, Vie); I T Palawatta (3.5, SL) beat Sunther Kumar (2.5, SL).
Girls: Y Prathiba (5.0) drew Luong Phong Hanh (4.5, Vie); Kruttika Nadig (4.0) drew Tania Sachdev (4.5); Saheli Nath (5) beat Rajmohan Mahima (3.5); Donavalli Harika (3) lost to Kathryn Ann Cruz (4, Phi); Yasoda U G Methmali (3, SL) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (4); H Nilavoli (4) beat D M P Maheshika (3, SL); J Rajasurya (4) beat L Ayodya (2.5, SL); J E Kavitha (3.5) beat Konara Harshani (2.5, SL); Dissanayaka Rushani (2, SL) lost to N Vinuthna (3); B D Umesha (2, SL) lost to Wettasighe Samanthi (3, SL).
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