Indian stars enjoy mixed luck, Divya suffers upset defeat

India's top players enjoyed mixed luck in Round 4 of the World Youth Chess Championship, with R Praggnanandhaa scoring a comfortable victory and P Iniyan eking out a tough draw even as Divya Deshmukh suffered an upset defeat here on Friday. FIDE Master Srihari L R was the dark horse of the day, shocking top-seed FIDE Master Sreeshwan Maralakshikari in the Under-14 Open category.

GMs Praggnanandhaa and Iniyan topped the points table in the Open Under-18 with 3.5 points each, along with IM Aryan Gholami of Iran. Praggnanandhaa, who had endured an exhausting draw in Round 3 against IM Artur Davtyan of Armenia, recovered smartly to beat IM Nikoloz Petriashvili of Georgia.

He opted for the King's Pawn Opening, which was countered with the popular Sicilian-Defence by Davtyan. After a complex middle-game, the Indian swiftly outplayed him in the endgame in 40 moves to take home an important point.

Iniyan, however, could not emulate Pragg but will be happy to hold a higher-ranked Gholami. The country's other hope and the top seed in the Girls U14, IWM Divya Deshmukh, who also had to be content with a draw on Thursday night, suffered an upset defeat to slide down on the leader-board.

She lost to Mongolia's Woman Candidate Master Bat-Erdene Mungunzul. In a London System game, Divya failed to obtain any tangible counterplay even as Bat-Edene'S double bishops reigned supreme on the board.

This led to a blunder by the Indian, leading to her resignation on move 45. Indian IM Aditya Mittal (Open) U18 and Lakshmi C (Girls U16) were the stars of Round 3 on Thursday, with the former drawing against top seed Sargsyan and the latter scoring her second straight upset against Serbian Woman FIDE Master Jovana Srdanovic.

Key Results: Round 4 U18 Open: P Iniyan (IND; 3.5) drew with Aryan Gholami (IRI; 3.5); R Praggnanandhaa (Ind; 3.5) bt Nikoloz Petriashvili (GEOl 3); Valentin Buckels (GER; 3) drew with Shant Sargsyan (ARM; 3) U18 Girls: Honorata Kucharska (POL; 3.5) drew with Polina Shuvalova (RUS; 3); Vantika Agrawal (IND; 3) drew with Assel Serikbay (KAZ; 3) U16 Open: Sankalp Gupta (IND; 3) lost to Rudik Makarian (RUS; 4) U18 Open: P Iniyan (IND; 3.5) drew with Aryan Gholami (IRI; 3.5); R Praggnanandhaa (Ind; 3.5) bt Nikoloz Petriashvili (GEOl 3); Valentin Buckels (GER; 3) drew with Shant Sargsyan (ARM; 3) U18 Girls: Honorata Kucharska (POL; 3.5) drew with Polina Shuvalova (RUS; 3); Vantika Agrawal (IND; 3) drew with Assel Serikbay (KAZ; 3) U16 Open: Sankalp Gupta (IND; 3) lost to Rudik Makarian (RUS; 4); Costamilan Tomiello (BRA; 3) lost to Aronyak Ghosh (IND; 4); Raja Rithvik (IND; 2.5) lost to Moke Hans Niemann (USA; 3.5) U16 Girls: Lakshmi C (IND; 3.0) lost to Leya Garifullina (RUS; 4.0); Nurgali Nazerke (KAZ; 4) bt Salonika Saina (IND; 3) U14 Open: Srihari L R (IND; 4.0) beat Sreeshwan M. (IND; 3.0), Alex Colay (USA; 3.5) drew Aydin Suleymanli (AZE; 3.5) U14 Girls: Dhyana Patel (IND; 3.5) drew Eline Roebers (NED; 3.5); Kurmangaliyeva Liya (KAZ; 3.5) drew Poliakova Varvara (BLR; 3.5)..