Mon, Aug 09 10 07:09 PM
Chotowa Czarna (Poland) Aug 9 (PTI) Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi will take on Dariusz Swiercz of Poland in the sixth round of the World Junior Chess Championship here. It has been a decent start for the top rated Indian this year in the premier junior event of the world and Negi would like to continue the same way when the matches resume after the lone rest day in this fortnight long event. With four points in his kitty from five games played so far, Negi stands joint second behind Swiercz who has a half point more. It is in fact a group of 11 players who are chasing Swiercz a half point behind and the list also includes top seed Dmitry Andreikin of Russia and another Indian M R Lalith Babu. Lalith Babu has been displaying top form in the championship so far and he too, like Negi, has conceded just two draws besides three victories. Babu also stands an excellent chance to get another Grandmaster norm from this tournament after his rocking start. In the girls'' championship being organised simultaneously, Padmini Rout has been the pick of the Indians and her results so far have been encouraging enough to hope for a medal. It may be recalled that India is the defending champion in this section after Soumya Swaminathan won it last year at Argentina. Padmini is seeded 11th in the 60-players'' field and her 4.5 points from the first five games have put her on par with top seed Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia, Nastassia Ziaziulkina of Belarus and Olga Girya of Russia. The World junior is a long tournament and a great finish is needed. There are eight rounds still remaining and in both sections there have been many upsets thus far. The general idea is to keep within striking range of the leaders till the eighth or ninth round and then go full swing. In the last world junior that he played, Negi scored 4.5 points in the last round and finished second. Then Abhijeet Gupta had won the championship winning the last five games. Keeping the trend in mind, Negi''s main rivals are likely to be Andreikin and Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway who is also the second seed. Hammer is currently on 3.5 points. Ivan Salgado Lopez of Spain and Safarli Eltaj of Azerbaijan have been the biggest flops so far and both have just 2.5 points from first five round despite having 2600+ ELO ratings. S P Sethuraman is trying to make amends for his terrible start and is now on 3 points. Amongst other Indians in the fray, Swapnil Dhopade also has three points while Sagar Shah is on 2.5. Ashwin Jayaram and R Arun Karthik are way behind with just two points so far. With a four-way tie at the top in the girls'' section, the other Indian girl Bhakti Kulkarni is well placed on joint fifth spot with four points while B Pratyusha could not make the most of a good start and is on two points.
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