Woman Grandmaster Padmini Rout made her presence felt with a clinical victory over Mona Khaled of Egypt in the fourth round of the world junior girls' chess championship and jumped to joint lead here today.
After an easy draw with compatriot Ivana Maria Furtado in the previous round, India's best bet Padmini rose to the occasion and played a fine positional game to beat Khaled with white pieces. The victory took Padmini to 3.5 points out of a possible four.
With nine rounds still remaining in the premier event for players under-20, Padmini joined overnight sole leader Daria Pustovoitova of Russia, Ann Chumpitaz of Peru and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh of Iran, all of whom 3.5 points apiece.
At the top of the tables, Pustovoitova played out a draw with teammate and top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina, while Maria Gevorgyan of Armenia found a tough match in Khademalsharieh. Chumpitaz got the better of Sakshi Chitlange a little lower.
The day, however, belonged to Padmini who played some imaginative chess in the middle game to find herself on the right side of a Bishops and pawns endgame. While the pawns were equal for the bystanders, Padmini had calculated precisely and her Bishop was ready to go on a rampage when Khaled called it day. The game lasted 47 moves.
In the open section being played simultaneously, R Ganesh came up with another fine result holding Grandmaster Sahaj Grover to an easy draw. After an equal opening, Grover failed to cash in on his chances in the ensuing rook and pawns endgame and his bid to complicate matters never materialised.
Both Grover and Ganesh moved to three points after the deadlock.
Highest rated Indian Vidit Gujrathi also got no advantage with his white pieces against Lu Shanglei of China. The Indian went for trading of pieces at regular intervals and soon a level endgame was reached with no decisive result possible.
International Master and double Asian Junior champion N Srinath however did well to hold top seed Vladimir Fedoseev to a hard fought draw from a King pawn opening.
Srinath had to find many correct moves after being on the defensive but did not deter.
Jorge Cori of Peru emerged as the sole leader in this section defeating Idani Pouya of Iran. Cori won with black pieces after a brilliant counter attack and is the only one in both championships with a perfect score.
