Soumya becomes third Indian girl to wear world jr crown

India's Soumya Swaminathan achieved what only five other Indians had in world chess, winning the world junior girls chess title in the event held at Puerto Madryn in Argentina. In the 13th and the final round, Soumya, defeated Kubra Ozturk of Turkey with white pieces and became the third Indian girl after Koneru Humpy (2002) and Dronavalli Harika (2008) to win the World Junior crown, according to a press release here.

Soumya tied for the first place with two others but had the better tie-break score to end a deserving winner. All of them scored 9.5 points from 13 games India, in fact, retained the girls title.

The current world no 3 and the reigning world men's champion V Anand (1987), P. Harikrishna (2004) and Abhijeet Gupta (2008) had also bagged the world junior crown, it may be recalled. title.

"Great news Magesh, congratulations to her and to the entire team.

Our president Mr N.Srinivasan and myself convey our hearty thanks for having kept the Indian flag flying high," AICF Secretary D V Sundar said in an official comminique from Vietnam to the Indian coach GM P. Magesh Chandran in Argentina.

In the final round, Soumya started on 8.5 points and Cori Tello (Per) was also on 8.5. But Betul Yildiz of Turkey was better placed on nine points. While leader Yildiz only drew against Orissa's Kiran Mohanty, Soumya and Cori Tello won to tie for the first place on 9.5 points. When the official results were out, Soumya had the higher tie-break score of 27314 than Cori Tello's 27250 and Yildiz's 27052.

Soumya was in command in the event but a penultimate round defeat pushed her down from which she rose to win the tournament. UNI VV DS 1634

-- (UNI) -- 04SPM18.xml

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