World Junior Girls’ Chess: Mariam holds Divya to draw

Mariam Mkrtchyan had to wait a bit for her rival to arrive on Sunday afternoon. It proved well worth the wait for the Armenian, as she held Divya Deshmukh to a draw in the eighth round of the World Junior Girls’ chess championship at the Gift City Club.

Mkrtchyan is seeded second, but she is rated 156 points below the Nagpur girl. Their Semi-Slav Defence game lasted just 25 moves.

Divya, however, maintained her sole lead, with six points, as the second-board game between Russian Ksenia Norman and Narmin Abdinova of Azerbaijan also ended in a draw. They, along with Mkrtchyan, Ayalum Kaladorva (Kazakhstan) and Rakshitta Ravi.

In the boys’ championship, Kazakhstan’s Kazybek Nogerbek took the sole lead after beating L.M.S.T. De Silva of Sri Lanka. He is on six points, half a point ahead of eight players, including second-seeded Russian Aleksey Grebnev and third-seed Pranav Anand.