Chess: Wei Yi takes sole lead

Wei Yi of China continued his march towards the title with a comprehensive victory over Karen Grigoryan of Armenia in the 11th round of the LIC World Junior Chess Championship here Friday.

His compatriot Lu Shanglei, who had been matching pace with him, was held to a draw by Griogriy Oparin of Russia. Thus, Wei is the sole leader now with a tally of nine points while Shanglei is second spot with 8.5.

Kamil Dragun of Poland and Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland defeated Aravindh Chithambaram and Irakali Beradze respectively to move up to third spot with eight points each. Top seed Vladimir Fedoseev also defeated Diptayan Ghosh to tally eight points.

Even as less fancied Indians struggled on the top boards, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, who had been bogged down, covered some ground by defeating Christopher Repka of Slovakia to total 7.5 points. Karthikeyan Murali also accounted for Balazs Csonko of Hungary.

Important results (Indians unless specified):

Open: Wei Yi (Chn) 9 bt Grigoriyan Karen (Arm) 7 ; Grigoriy Oparin (Rus) 7.5 drew Lu Shanglei (Chn) 8.5 ; Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus) 8 bt Diptayan Ghosh 7 ; Jorge Cori (Per) Ankit Rajpara ; Irakli Beradze (Geo )7 lost to Duda Jan Krzysztof (Pol) 8; Kamil Dragun (Pol) 8 bt Aravindh Chithambaram 7; Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 7.5 bt Christopher Repka (Svk) 6.5; Aryan Tari (Nor) 7.5 bt Mikhail Atipov (Rus) 6.5; Karthikeyan M 7.5 bt Balazs Csonka (Hun) 6.5.

Girls: Daria Pustovoitova (Rus) 7.5 drew Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri) 7.5 ; Srija Seshadri 8 bt P.V. Nandhidhaa 6.5 ; Irina Petrukhina (Rus) 6.5 lost to Meri Arabidze (Geo) 7.5; Mona Khaled (Egy) 6.5 lost to Sabina Ibrahimova (Aze) 7.5.