SL Narayanan earns GM norm

S L Narayanan held compatriot and fourth seed Vidit Santosh Gujrathi to a draw in the ninth round of the Junior World Chess Championship in Pune on Tuesday which let to the 16-year-old earning his his first GM norm. In the Girls section, 18-year-old P V Nandhidhaa defeated Pratyusha Bodda to make her third WIM norm. Incidentally Pratyusha also made her WIM norm.

On the top board Aleksandra Goryachkina defeated Ann Chumpitaz of Peru to shoot into sole lead with 7.5 points. Sarasadat Khademalsharieh is trailing half a point behind while Padmini, Dari Pustovoitova, Zhai Mo, Ann Chumpitaz and Anna Iwanow are bunched together with 6.5 points. Daria Pustovoitova also earned a WIM norm.

In the Open section the top board encounter between the two Chinese players Wei Ye and Lu Shanglei ended in a draw while top seed Fedoseev scored a victory over overnight joint leader Karen Grigoryan. Wei, Lu and Fedoseev are jointly leading with 7 points each. Eight players including Diptayan Ghosh and Aravindha Chithambaram of India are trailing just half a point behind the leaders.