Friday, Dec 27, 2013
Al Ain: The UAE’s Amnah No’man continued her brilliant performances in the Under-18 girls’ competition of the 13th World Youth Chess Championships after beating Patricija Vujnovic of Croatia in the ninth round to collect five points. Amnah heads the local competitors in her age category.
Amnah has also collected four points from seven rounds of the Blitz competition, two behind the leader, Maria Severina from Russia.
A total of five players share the lead in the U-18 competition with 7 points each. Russia’s Lidia Tomnikova is ranked first, according to the Swiss tiebreaking system.
Iranian Sarasadat Khademalsharieh and Serbia’s Adela Velikic share the lead in the Under-16 category for girls, with 7.5 points each, while Russian Anna Vasenina kept her sole lead intact in the Under-14 category with 8.5 points.
In the Under-12 category, Khanim Balajayeva from Azerbaijan jumped into the lead after beating India’s Vaishali Ramesh Babu in the ninth round to increase her tally to eight points.
Saina Salonika and Lakshmi Chidambaram from India are joint leaders in the Under-20 event with 7.5 points each, while four players lead the Under-8s with 7.5 points each, with Indian Divya Jetindra Deshmukh ranked first.
Iranian Pouya Idani stayed on top of the Under 18 Open with 7.5 points, followed by Armenian Hovhannes Gabuzyan with seven points.
Russian Kiril Alekseenko leads the Under-16 Open with eight points, while the UAE’s Ebrahim Sultan lost his second match in nine rounds after being beaten by Ayan Akhmetov from Azerbaijan to stay on 5.5 points.
China’s Di Li maintained his lead of the Under-14 with 8.5 points, while Aram Hakobyan of Armenia is the front-runner in the Under-12s competition with eight points.
American Liang Awonder in the Under-10 category and Indian Praggnanandhas Ramesh Babu in the Under-8 competition are the only two players in the championships to have won all their nine matches.
By Yasir Abbasher Senior Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
