Former Asian Under-10 champion Parimarjan Negi scored a fluent victory over Julian Jorczik of Germany to move into sole lead after the sixth round in the under-12 section of the World Youth chess championships in Keraklion, Greece.
With his sixth straight victory in as many rounds, Negi took his tally to six points and is now half a point ahead of nearest rival Zhao Nan of China.
A couple of pre-event favourites like Sugirov Sanan and Ding Liren remain a full point behind the Indian along with Jorczik.
With just five rounds remaining in the ten different World championships for boys and girls, top seed and Woman Grandmaster Dronavali Harika also continues to excel. She put it across
Olga Girya of Russia in a game of fluctuating fortunes in the under-14 girls' section.
Harika, who is undefeated since the just-concluded Chess Olympiad at Mallorca in Spain, was in some sort of trouble as Girya handled the complexities well in the middle game but once the time pressure approached, the Russian was not quite up to the task in negotiating with tormenting white rooks.
Harika won in 56 moves, thanks to a blunder by Girya, leading to loss of a piece.
For Negi, it turned out to be a one-sided affair as he crushed Jorczik, who played the white side of a Noteboom variation.
Not quite aware of the middle game finesses arising out of the opening, the German lost a pawn very early and could not recover against Negi's menacing passed pawns on the queens side. It took just 27 moves for Negi to wrap the issue.
But India's hopes suffered a setback in the Under-10 girls' section as overnight joint leader J Mohana Priya went down to Mary Arabidze of Georgia.
Priya slipped to joint third spot after this blow as Arabidze shot in to sole lead on six points where she is trailed by Chinese Xu Huahua, who is half a point behind.
Another jolt for India came in the under-16 girls' section as Mary Ann Gomes was outwitted by Bela Khotenashvili of Georgia.
The 18-move defeat cost Gomes dearly as she was relegated to joint fourth spot from overnight joint first.
The other Indians had a mixed day in various events. N Sirinath jumped to joint second position in the under-10 boys' section after beating Dmytrov Kigel of Ukraine while S Arun Prasad moved to joint fourth in the Under-16.
