Top seeded Grandmaster Koneru Humpy jumped to the joint lead after a thumping victory over Ekaterina Ubiennykh of Russia in the 11th round of the 19th World juniors girls' chess championship in Panaji, Goa, on Wednesday.
Overnight leader, Woman Grandmaster Zhao Xue of China and WGM Nadezhda Kosintseva of Russia share the top place alongside the Indian ace with 8.5 points each as the championship heads for a close finish with only two more rounds remaining.
Holding the sole fourth position is Wang Yu of China on 8 points while Russian Tatiana Kosintseva is on fifth spot on 7.5 points. A pack of three -- Ioulia Makka of Greece, Eva Moser of Austria and Dronavalli Harika -- are next in line with 7 points each.
Humpy gave no chances to Ubiennykh. Playing white, the defending champion employed the Reti opening and the game took shape in a King's Indian attack wherein Humpy enjoyed a miniscule advantage in the initial phase.
Exerting pressure on the queenside, Humpy deployed her forces well to gain further ground in the middlegame and slowly squeezed out the defensive resources of Ubiennykh, who could not hold her position together and blundered an exchange on the 24th move. The rest was child's play and Humpy wrapped the issue in 48 moves.
"I have not been playing well here," said Humpy after the game. "I misplayed quite a few winning positions and this is not good; I could have done better."
Asked about the pressure of being the defending champion, she was quick to reply, "There is no pressure. Of course, it is a lot different from last time when I lost a couple of games. At least this year I have not lost so far."
Zhao Xue had a miraculous escape when she salvaged a half point against Eva Moser of Austria, who played with white pieces. Xue faced the closed set-up against her Sicilian defence and felt the heat as Moser went for a direct attack against the king.
Looking for counter play, Zhao initiated an attack along the central files but Moser was quick to rip open the kingside with precise calculation. However, just as it looked that the Austrin would cruise through, Xue got lucky in mutual time pressure as Moser blundered and blew away all the advantage that she had. The game was drawn vide repetition after 63 moves.
Eesha Karvade put up stiff resistance but eventually went down to Nadezhda Kosintseva after 73 moves of a Dutch Leningrad defence game while Dronavalli Harika celebrated her new acquired Women International Master status in style by defeating Women Grandmaster Elmira Hasanova of Russia.