Ramya Krishna beats Harika to emerge leader

I Ramya Krishna pulled off a spectacular victory over second seed and compatriot D Harika to shoot into the sole lead on 5.5 points after the end of the sixth round in the under-12 girls section of the World Youth chess championships Heraklion (Greece) on Wednesday.

After a rather disappointing loss in the first round, G Rohit came back into the reckoning for top honours in the under-14 boys' section with his fifth straight win.

Rohit accounted for Karel Malinovsky of the Czech Republic and is now in a five-way lead at the top of the table along with former World under-12 champion Deep Sengupta on five points.

Parimarjan Negi also moved into joint lead in the under-10 boys' group with a finely crafted victory over Luo Xin of China.

Parimarjan, who has 5.5 points so far from his six games, shares the lead with top seed Safarli Eltaz of Azerbaijan and Ding Liren of China.

In the under-18 boys' section, Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna scored his first victory with black pieces in the event to maintain joint second position on five points.

Surprising his opponent, Dmitry Schneider of the United States, as early as on the first move itself, Harikrishna went for the Ruy Lopez variation to score an emphatic victory.

Schneider went for a side variation in the opening and found Harikrishna's relatively new idea too hot to handle. As the board progressed into a queenless middle game from the opening, Harikrishna manoeuvred his pieces subtly to win the board.