Chess: Narayanan earns GM norm

S.L. Narayanan, the pick of the Indian players in LIC World Junior Chess Championship in progress here held compatriot and fourth seed Vidit Santosh Gujrathi to a draw and earned his first GM norm Wednesday.

In the Girls section, 18-year-old P.V. Nandhidhaa defeated Pratyusha Bodda in a dramatic fashion to make her third WIM norm and complete the requirements for her WIM title. Incidentally, Pratyusha also made her WIM norm.

"My IM title was confirmed last month and this is my first GM norm," said the shy and soft spoken 16-year old Narayanan while Nandhidhaa was visibly excited.

"I made my first two norms in 2011 and 2012 and then missed making my final norm on seven occasions. Today I was very lucky as my opponent blundered on the last move in a dead draw position," said Nandhidhaa.

On the top board, Aleksandra Goryachkina defeated Ann Chumpitaz of Peru to shoot into sole lead with 7.5 points while Sarasadat Khademalsharieh trailed half a point behind with Padmini Rout, Dari Pustovoitova, Zhai Mo, Ann Chumpitaz and Anna Iwanow were bunched with 6.5 points. Daria Pustovoitova also earned a WIM norm.

In the Open section, the top board encounter between the two Chinese players Wei Ye and Lu Shanglei ended in a draw while top seed Fedoseev scored a victory over overnight joint leader Karen Grigoryan.

Wei, Lu and Fedoseev were jointly leading with seven points each while eight players, including Diptayan Ghosh and Aravindha Chithambaram of IndiaA were trailing just half a point behind the leaders.

The encounter between Bai Jinshi and Mikhail Antipov was one of the first ones to end in a draw. Jinshi earned a 9-round Swiss League GM norm.

Important results (Indians unless specified):

Open: Wei Yi (Chn) 7 drew Lu Shanglei (Chn) 7 ; Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus) 7 bt GM Karen Grigoryan (Arm) 6.5; Jorge Cori (Per) 6.5 drew Diptayan Ghosh 6.5 ; Bai Jinshi (Chn) 6.5 drew Mikhail Antipov (Rus) 6.5 ; Grigoriy Oparin (Rus) 6 drew Prasanna Rao 6 ; Kamil Dragun (Pol) 6.5 bt N Srinath 5.5 ; Linus Johansson (Swe) 5.5 lost to Aravindh Chidhambaram 6.5 ; Aryan Tari (Nor) 5.5 lost to Paulo Bersamina 6.5 ; S.L. Narayanan 6 drew Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 6 ; Tadeas Kriebel (Cze) 6 bt Robin Van Kampen (Ned) 5 ; Anurag Mhamal 5 lost to Duda Jan Krzysztof (Pol) 6; Ankit Rajpara 6 bt Ege Koksal (Tur) 5 ; M Karthikeyan 6 bt Rajdeep Sarkar 5; Ritviz Parab 5 lost to Quinten Ducarmon (Ned) 6.

Girls: Ann Chumpitaz (Per) 6.5 lost to Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus) 7.5; Anna Iwanow (Pol) 6.5 lost to Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri) 7 ; Daria Pustovoitova (Rus) 6.5 bt Ioana Gelip (Rou) 6 ; Mo Zhai (Chn) 6.5 bt Sabina Ibrahimova (Aze) 5.5 ; Padmini Rout 6.5 bt Mae Frayna Janelle (Phi) 5.5; Tea Gueci (Ita) 5 lost to Meri Arabidze (Geo) 6 ; Michelle Catherina 5.5 drew Nguyen Thi Mai Hung 5.5 ; Srija Seshadri 6 bt Marina Brunello (Ita) 5; Irina Petrukhina (Rus) Vlada Sviridova (Rus); Nandhidhaa P.V. 6 bt Pratyusha Bodda 5 ; Ivana Maria Furtado 5.5 drew Madhurima Shekhar 5.5 ; Varshini V 5.5 drew Cyrielle MonPeurt (Fra) 5.5.