Round 7 - Anurag Mhamal shocks second seed Robin Van kampen

In the most sensational result of the day Goa based Anurag Mhamal defeated second seed Robin Van Kampen of Netherland in the dying stages of the game. Battling in a minus position against the Sicilian defence, Anurag was delighted when Kampen in severe time trouble blundered and resigned on the 47th move when his bishop got trapped.

He is not a GM yet, nor does his Rating reflect his strength but S L Narayanan hailing from Kerala has undoubtedly been the most impressive Indian face in the LIC World Junior Chess Championship which has reached the halfway stage at Hotel Hyatt, Pune. In the seventh round Narayanan (2420) drew against GM Lu Shanglei (2533) of China and has logged highest points amongst the Indians in fray.

However Jorge Cori of Peru shot into sole lead with 6 points after defeating Mikhail Antipov of Russia while Lu, Narayanan, Wei Yi of China and Karen Grigoryan of Armenia are trailing in second place with 5.5 points each . In the Girls section Padmini Rout, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Daria Pustovoitova of Russia, Ann Chumpitaz of Peru and Anna Iwanow of Poland are jointly leading with 5.5 points each.

In the Girls section, the tough contest between overnight joint leaders Padmini and Daria of Russia ended with the honours shared after a hard fought 68 moves where Padmini was always on the troubled, defending side.' It was a very tough game to defend and a mistake by my opponent helped in salvaging a draw" said Padmini.

Top seed and defending Champion Aleksandra Goryachkina defeated compatriot Mae Frayna Janelle to total 5.5 points. Ivana Maria Furtado of India defeated Monisha Gk and has scored 5 points.

The 13 round gruelling event is sponsored by LIC and Government of Maharashtra and Amanora, ONGC, Jain Irrigation and Everstone are the Associate sponsors. It was a setback as Sahaj Grover ended on the losing side against higher rated Karen Grigoryan of Armenia. Monday is a rest day for the event and the 8th round will be played on Tuesday.

The Queen's Gambit Opening between Narayanan and Lu was a rather sedate affair where the Chinese did not waste any opportunity in exchanging pieces. By the 20th turn the game had already transposed into an ending with a light squared bishop, a rook and six pawns each. Thereafter it was an interesting duel in the ending where both players exhibited ambition of trying to probe for a win. However with both playing solidly , slowly the pawns and pieces were exchanged and a draw sealed on the 53rd move with just the Kings standing on board.

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, the highest rated player in fray had to settle for another draw against Irakli Beradze of Georgia and with just 4 points in his kitty needs to score heavily in the remaining rounds to be in contention for a medal.