NAGPUR: City's chess queen and top seed Divya Deshmukh jumped to sole lead at the halfway mark of the World Junior girls chess championship, currently in progress at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, on Friday.
In the sixth game of the 11-round championship organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE), Nagpur's International Master (IM) defended well with her black pieces to get the better of Thursday's joint leader and 13th seeded WIM Allahverdiyeva Ayan of Azerbaijan.
On the top board, Divya chose the Sicilian defence on Allahverdiyeva's King pawn opening. In the bishop, knight, and queen's end game the 18-year-old Divya became a piece up and sealed the fate of her lower ranked opponent.
On the 42nd turn Divya captured Allahverdiyeva's knight and within three moves forced Azerbaijan's Women International Master (WIM) to resign.
With this 45-move sixth round win, Divya took sole lead with 5.5 points and is being followed by three others with five points. A total of 101 players from 27 countries are participating in the 12-day tournament.
Earlier in the fourth round, Divya played out a 30-move draw with Switzerland's eighth seed WIM Hryzlova Sofiia in an equal endgame. On her way to take the lead, Divya had defeated three compatriots including Anupam Sreekumar, Sherali Pattnaik, Tejaswini G and Azerbaijan's Abdinova Narmin.
In the seventh round, to be played after a day's rest, the 2456 Elo Divya will once again defend with the black pieces. She will face the challenge of second seeded WIM and 2300 Elo Mkrtchyan Mariam from Armenia on Sunday.
