Aditya Mittal, with a tally of 5.5 points, grabbed the lead at the end of the sixth round today of the IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Junior Chess Tournament here today.
In a closely contested game, Mittal overcame the challenge from B Sriram to pick up the full point.
Both Mittal and Sriram were engaged in a tense battle initially, before the former managed to snatch a slight one piece advantage in the middle game. Mittal capitalised on that advantage and went on to checkmate his rival on the 37th move.
Meanwhile, Grandmaster Swapnill S Dhopade and Himal Gusain emerged joint leaders with 6.5 points each after the seventh round of the International Open event, held concurrently.
On the top board, Dhopade beat overnight leader Stany GA, while Gusain defeated Vinay Kumar Matta on the second board. Stany, despite the loss, remained in the hunt as he has 6 points, half a point shy of the leaders.
Results: Juniors (Round 6) - IIFL Wealth Mumbai Junior (Indians unless specified): Om Kharola (5) drew with D Gukesh (5), Aditya Mittal (5.5) bt B Sriram (4.5), Jeet Shah (4) lost to Aan Sikka (5), Aditya Savalkar (4.5) bt Gurav Sanmil (3.5), Ananya Rishi Gupta (3.5) lost to Vignesh Kasi P L (4.5), Vansh Aggarwal (4) drew with Chhabra Aakash (4), Adane Narayani (4.5) bt Kabir Belgikar (3), Alok Sinha (4) bt Shah Vrisha Parag (3), Yutesh P (4) bt Bagwe Gaurang (3), Mrudul Dehankar (4) bt Samyukta Banthia (3), Rishabh Chandrasekhar Gokhale (3.5) drew with Arya Ranjan (3.5).
Open (Round 7): Swapnil S Dhopade (6.5) bt Stany G A (6), Matta Vinay Kumar (5) lost to Gusain Himal (6.5), Ravi Teja S (5.5) bt Gukesh D (5), Gagare Shardul (5) drew with Abhishek Das (5), Nitin S (5) drew with Chakravarthi Reddy M (5), Krishna Teja N (5) drew with Himanshu Sharma (5), Muthaiah A L (5.5) bt Harikrishnan A Ra (4.5), Sharma Dinesh K (5) bt Kothari Swapnil (4), Manush Shah (4.5) drew with Kulkarni Vikramaditya (4.5), Parnali S Dharia (5) bt Deshmukh Anup (4).
Sethuraman however was reliant on Surya Shekhar Ganguly
who did a world a of good for the fellow Indian, beating the top seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam. Ganguly showed his true mettle by outplaying the Vietnamese in all departments of the game. Although he tied for the second spot, Ganguly had to content himself with eighth position in the end.
Deep Sengupta will play his maiden world cup thanks to some fighting chess he produced here. The game against Wen Yang was a must win with black and Sengupta threw caution to the winds with an exchange sacrifice leading to his pawn marching to glory. This will be a well deserved entry to the world cup.
Important and Indian results round 9 (Indians unless specified): Wei Yi (Chn, 6.5) lost to S P Sethuraman (7); Le Quang Liem (Vie, 6.5) lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (6.5); Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri, 6) drew with B Adhiban (6); Murtas Kazhgaleyev (Kaz, 6.5) beat Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (5.5); Fang Yan (Chn, 5.5) lost to Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vie, 6.5); Aravindh Chithambaram (5.5) lost to Lu Shanglei (Chn, 6.5); Wen Yang (Chn, 5.5) lost to Deep Sengupta (6.5); Abhijeet Gupta (5) lost to Batchuluun Tsegmed (Mgl, 6.5); Murali Karthikeyan (5.5) drew with Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb, 5); M R Lalith Babu (5) Chu Wei Chao (Chn, 4); Saydaliev Saidakbar (Uzb, 4.5) beat Rahul Srivatshav (3.5).
Women: Bhakti Kulkarni (7) drew with Hoang Thi Bao Tram (Vie, 6); Dinara Saduakassova (Kaz, 6.5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (6.5); Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (Uzb, 5.5) drew with Munguntuul Batkhuyag (Mgl, 5.5); Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie, 6) beat Li Xueyi (Chn, 5); Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 6) beat Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (Mgl, 5); R Vaishali (4.5) lost to Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri, 5.5); Citra Dewi Ardhiani Anastasia (Ina, 4) lost to Padmini Rout (5); Pratyusha Bodda (5) beat Yuan Ye (Chn, 4); Mary Ann Gomes (4.5) beat Nadezhda Antonova (Tjk, 3.5).
