Woman Grandmaster Zhao Xue of China won the 19th edition of the World juniors girls' chess championship after an emphatic victory over Dronavalli Harika in the 13th and final round in Panaji, Goa, on Friday.
Xue tied for the first place with top seed Grandmaster Koneru Humpy on 10.5 points but her tie-break proved better than that of the Indian's as she had played players with higher average rating in the championship.
Humpy won the last round game against Sophie Millet of France to win the silver but could not repeat her last year's feat when she won a close race against Xue towards the end of the championship.
"Last year I played a draw in the final round and Humpy took the championship. This time I was determined to win as I knew my tie-break was better," said Zhao after her triumph.
Humpy was not quite happy with her on-board performance here.
"I misplayed some excellent positions in the middle of the tournament while Xue was winning after attaining a slight advantage. She certainly played better than me here. It was a near reflection of the last year in the end when we both tied for first but my tie-break was better," Humpy said.
Wang Yu, the other Chinese in contention for the medal, however failed to deliver the goods in the last round and lost to Ekaterina Ubiennykh of Russia paving way for Russian Nadezhda Kosintseva to take the bronze.
In the last round Kosintseva defeated Eva Moser of Austria and took her tally to 10 points.
Armenia's Aronian wins boys' title
Grandmaster Levon Aronian of Armenia won the 41st World junior boys' championship, with a brilliant victory against GM Dimitry Jakovenko of Russia in the 13th and final round.
The hosts had also something to cheer about as Grandmaster-in-waiting Surya Shekhar Ganguly scored a quickfire victory against Miton Kamil of Poland and finished a creditable third.
He tied for third place with Artyom Timofeev of Russia.
The silver medal went to GM Luke McShane of England, who scored a win against GM Ferenc Berkes of Hungary in a game of fluctuating fortunes.
Ganguly's medal winning performance in the World Juniors comes after a huge gap of 15 years for India after Vishwanathan Anand won the gold at Baggio, Philippines, in 1987.
Aronian (10 points) was a man with a mission in the final round as he outplayed Jakovenko for his third successive victory in the last three rounds of the championship.
Aronian, whose onslaught started in the 11th round when he defeated S Poobesh Anand, continued his amazing form with a surprisingly easy victory over GM Pentyala Harikrishna and capped it with an excellent victory over Jakovenko in the last game.
"Luck played a major role, you have to be lucky when you are doing well, form cannot be the only decisive factor," the champion said, referring to a few hiccups in the earlier rounds when he survived some difficult positions.
