Asian junior chess: Abilmansur Abdilkhair stuns Daakshin Arun

On a day when decisive results proved elusive on the top three boards, Kazakhstan’s Abilmansur Abdilkhair sprang a surprise on the fourth. He defeated fourth seed Daakshin Arun to be among the early leaders of the Tata Steel Asian junior chess championship at the JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur on Sunday.

Top seed Aleksey Grebnev from Russia was held to a draw on the first board by S. Aswath. Second-seeded L.R. Srihari and third seed Mayank Chakraborty, who had won the rapid title a couple of days ago, also drew their games.

In the girls’ section, second and third seeds Saina Salonika and Bommini Mounika Akshaya were among the joint leaders. Top seed Nazerke Nurgali of Kazakhstan is lying ninth. Seven rounds remain.

The results (second round, Indians unless specified):

Open: S. Aswath 1.5 drew with Aleksey Grebnev (FIDE) 1.5; L.R. Srihari 1.5 drew with M. Anees Mohamed 1.5; Mayank Chakraborty 1.5 drew with Rohith S. Krishna 1.5; Daakshin Arun 1 lost to Abilmansur Abdilkhair (Kaz) 2; Reeja Neer Manon (Ban) 1 lost to N.B. Hari Madhavan 2; Kushagra Mohan 2 bt L. Srihari 1; Ajay Parvathareddy 1 lost to Dilshan Liyanage (SL) 2; G.B. Harshavardhan 2 bt Dhyey Agarwal 1; B. Vignesh 1 lost to Sambit Panda 2; Manish Cristiano 2 bt Ritvik Krishnan 1; Shashvat Gupta 1.5 drew with Ayush Sharma 1.5; Gilbert Tarigan (Idn) 2 bt Siddhant Jha 1.

Girls: Saina Salonika 2 bt Fatima Marium 1; Dakshita Kumawat 1 lost to Bommini Mounika Akshaya 2; Saparya Ghosh 1 lost to Mrittika Mallick 2; V. Rindhiya 2 bt Swara Lakshmi S. Nair 1; Mohitha Vakcheri 1 lost to G. Tejaswini 2; Keerti Reddy 1.5 drew with Bristy Mukherjee 1.5; A. Charvi 1.5 drew with Anastasia Ivanova (FIDE) 1.5; Wadifa Ahmed (Ban) 2 bt Kriti Patil 2; Divya Patil 1.5 drew with M.K. Poorna Sri 1.5; Shubhi Gupta 2 bt Y. Nischala 1; P. Adra 1 lost to Y. Sachi Jain 2.