Chess: Top seeds drop points

After a spate of upsets in the first round, it was no different in the second played Tuesday as the seeded players found it difficult to score the expected victories in the World Junior Chess Championship here.

Hot favourites and the top two seeds, Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia and Robin Van Kampen of Netherlands were held to a draw by Daniel Bogdan Deac of Romania and Jinshi Bai of China respectively.

In the girls section also, defending champion and top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina was held to a draw by Maria Gevorgyan of Armenia.

Indian contenders for the titles Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Padmini Rout however notched their second successive victories in their respective sections.

Padmini carved an easy victory while Vidit had to bring all his expertise and experience into play against compatriot Vignesh Nr in a hard fought tussle lasting 60 moves.

Meanwhile, 10-year-old Nihal Sarin, who created a sensational upset Monday, caused another flutter when he held higher ranked and rated IM Tadeas Kriebel to a draw in another marathon game lasting 88 moves.

In all, 16 players are leading tournament with two points and apart from Vidit, include other Indians Sahej Grover, Ankit Rajpara, Diptayan Ghosh, Shardul Gagare, S.L. Narayanan, and Sayantan Das.

In the girls section, 11 players share lead and apart from Padmini, the other Indians in lead are Ivana Maria Furtado, Pratyusha Bodda and Nandhidhaa P.V.

Important results (Open section - Indians unless specified):

Deac Bogdan Daniel (Rou) 1.5 drew Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus) 1.5; Robin Van Kampen (Ned) 1.5 drew Jinshi Bai (Chn) 1.5; Ider Borya (Fra) 1 lost to GM Yi Wei (Chn) 2; Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2 bt Vignesh NR 1; Novak Cabarkapa (Srb) 1 lost to Jorge Cori (Per) 2; Jan Krzysztof Duda (Pol) 1.5 drew Prince Bajaj 1.5; Gabriel Gaehwiler (Sui) 2 bt Benjamin Bok (Ned) 1; Karen Grigoryan (2591) 1.5 drew Erkin Kozganbay (Kaz) 1.5; Sezen Ufuk Arat (Tur) 1.5 drew Aleksandar Indjic (Srb) 1.5; Navalgund Niranjan 1 lost to Mikhail Antipov (Rus) 2; Antonia Viani D'Cunha 1 lost to Ankit Rajpara 2; Diptayan Ghosh 2 bt B Kumaran 1; Prateek Patil 1.5 drew Aravindh Chithambram 1.5; K Praneeth Surya 1 lost to Sahaj Grover 2; Tadeas Kriebel (CZE) 1.5 drew Nihal Sarin 1.5

Girls: Maria Gevorgyan (Arm) 1.5 drew Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus) 1.5; Daria Pustovoitova (Rus) 2 bt Mila Zarkovic (Srb) 1; Padmini Rout 2 bt Tihana Ivekovic (Cro) 1; Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie) 2 bt J. Saranya 1; Aysa Imeeva (Rus) 2 bt Klara Varga (Hun) 1; Nandhidhaa P.V. 2 bt V. Varshini 1; Mahasweta Kumar 1 lost to Ivana Maria Furtado 2.