World Junior: Rombaldoni and Girya lead with perfect scores

The SDAT–RAMCO 50th World Junior & 29th Junior Girls Chess Championships 2011 This event is taking place from August 1st to 16th in Chennai, India. It is one of the strongest WJCC ever, featuring over 80 titled players among the juniors and girls. Top seeds in the Open Section are Russian GMs Maxim Matlakov (2632) and Sanan Sjugirov (2629), Spanish GM Ivan Salgado Lopez (2626) and fifteen more GMs. In the Girls' Section there are five WGMs led by Nazi Paikidze (2416, GEO), Anastasia Savina (2398, RUS), Deysi Cori (2376, PER), Olga Girya (2371, RUS) and Rout Padmini (2348, IND).

Round four

Israeli GM Tamir Nabaty went down to IM Axel Rombaldoni of Italy, a win that gave the latter the sole lead with 4.0/4 points. Following the leader with 3.5 points were GM Ivan Salgado Lopez of Spain, Polish IM Piorun Kacper and India's IM Sahaj Grover, among others.

The Delhi based Grover, who is aiming at a GM norm, scored an elegant 24-move win win over FM Adrian-Marian Petrisor of Romania, to the delight of the local fans. Another result that saw Karnataka boy G.A. Stany hold Croatian GM Sasa Martinovic to a draw. The untitled Stany is moving towards a grandmaster norm.

GM Ivan Salgado Lopez, 2626, Spain, vs IM Kacper Piorun, 2514, Poland (draw in 44)

IM Frode Urkedal, 2448, Norway, vs GM Dariusz Swiercz, 2553, Poland (draw in 39)

In the girls section, India's Rout Padmini had a pawn advantage against the top seed WGM Nazi Paikidze, but she let it slip and had to settle for a draw. WGM Olga Girya of Russia leads the pack with 4.0 points from as many rounds, followed by India's Padmini, Paikidze (Georgia), Irina Bulmaga (Romania), Cori T Deysi (Peru) and Nakhbayeva Guliskhan (Kazakhastan) respectively.

Round 4 Results (Open) (Indians unless specified)
Salgado Lopez Ivan (Spain) 3.5 drew with Piorun Kacper (Poland) 3.5, Nabaty Tamir (Israel) 2.5 lost to Rombaldoni Axel (Italy) 4,Robson Ray (USA) 2.5 lost to Goganov Aleksey (Russia) 3.5, Roganovic Milos (Serbia)3 drew with Ter-Sahakyan Samvel (Armenia) 3,Urkedal Frode (Norway) 3 drew with Swiercz Dariusz (Poland) 3, Rasulov Vugar Ural Oglu (Azerbaijan)3 drew with Kovalev Vladislav (Belarus) 3 Martinovic Sasa (Croatia)3 drew with Stany G A 3 Huschenbeth Niclas (Germany)3.5 beat Getz Nicolai (Norway) 2.5 Grover Sahaj, 3.5 beat Petrisor Adrian-Marian (Romania) 2.5, Lalith Babu M R 3 drew with Janev Tihomir(Bulgaria) 3

Round 4 Results (Girls) (Indians unless specified)
Padmini Rout (3.5) drew with Paikidze Nazi (Georgia) 3.5, Bulmaga Irina (Romania) 3.5 drew with Cori T Deysi (Peru) 3.5, Girya Olga (Russia) 4 beat Kazimova Narmin Nizami Qizi (Azerbaijan) 3, Nakhbayeva Guliskhan (Kazakhastan) 3.5 beat Agrest Inna (Sweden) 2, Kulkarni Bhakti, 2.5 drew with Deur Saric Zrinka (Croatia) 2.5, Eric Jovana (Serbia) 2.5 drew with Forestier Carole (France) 2.5, Ozturk Kubra (Turkey) 2.5 drew with Imeeva Aisa (Russia)2.5, Nandhidhaa P V 3 beat WIM Hoang Thi Nhu Y (Vietnam) 2, Pon N Krithika 2.5 drew with Dogodkina Julia (Russia) 2.5, Semenova Elena (Russia) 3 beat WIM Heredia Serrano Carla (Ecuador) 2

Round five

Round five was inaugurated by R. Vijayaraghavan, former National A player and Indian
National Student Champion 1970, as International Arbiter M. Ephrame looks on.

Overnight leader, Italian IM Axel Rombaldoni, kept a clean slate, winning his fifth game in a row. In the top board game, Rombaldoni beat third seed GM Ivan Salgado Lopez from Spain. Following the leader by half a point is now IM Kacper Piorun of Poland.

Meanwhile a quratet of Indian players, untitled Mishra Swayams and G.A.Stany, FM V.A.V. Rajesh, FM Koushik Girish and upset higher rated GMs and made headlines in the national newspapers. Swayams, a student of KIIT University from Bhubaneswar, emerged triumphant against GM Martinovic Sasa of Croatia in a Benoni game. "We dont see Benoni openings at higher levels of play, and it came as a surprise," said Mishra. "Martinovic stretched a bit more in the middle game, and after the bishop entry into his sixth rank, I felt confident of winning the game." Though the game stretched to 50 moves, the result was not in doubt, as Swayams kept adding the pressure on the king side. In the resultant open position, Martinovic conceded a big advantage and gave up when he ran out of queen checks.

Karnataka lads Girish and Stany, along with Chennai boy Rajesh, put it across their accomplished GM opponents Vasif Durarbeyli (Azerbaijan), Gyula Pap (Hungary) and Salem A R Saleh (UAE) respectively. The trio moved to shared third spot with 4.0 points, while Rajesh stays half a point behind at 3.5 points. Sahaj Grover who began with 3.5 points, had a bad day in the office, as he went down to Polish IM Piorun Kacper. The French game saw the Delhi boy unusually blundering an early piece, losing a miniature game. The big Indian hope WGM Rout Padmini, went down to Romanian Irina Bulmaga on the third board.

In the girls section, Russian WGM Olga Girya maintained her lead with 5.0 points after putting it across top seed Woman Grandmaster Paikidze Nazi of Georgia.

Chandika Divyasri of India playing Elena Semenova of Russia in round five

Top rankings after five rounds: Open – Girls

Links Official tournament site All games in zipped PGN: Open – Girls A selection of games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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