Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan (photo above) and IM Divya Deshmukh (photo below) grabbed solo lead in the open and girls divisions, respectively, each with six points out of seven rounds midway in the 11-round World Juniors and Girls in Gujarat, India.
Five players including WGM Rakshitta Ravi are trailing by a half point at 5.5/7 each.
In the Open event, IM Kazybek Nogerbek (KAZ) defeated IM L M S T De Silva (SRI) to emerge sole leader 6/7. Eight players are in pursuit at 5.5/7 each.
In a battle of former World Under-16 vs Under-14 champions, GM Pranav Anand outplayed IM Ilamparthi A R to stay in the fray with 5.5/7. IM Sambit Panda showed his fantastic positional understanding to beat GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux (CAN). Pranav will face GM Jose Gabriel Cardoso Cardoso (COL) and Divya will be up against Kseniya Norman in the eighth round.
There are almost 230 players in this tournament from 44 different federations with 104 different titles. More than half of all participants in this competition are from the host country, India.
The live broadcast is available here:
Open section
live.aicf.in/worldjunior2024/open/index.html
Girls section
live.aicf.in/worldjunior2024/girls/index.html
Photos: Sarangam Production
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