OROPESA DEL MOR SPAIN, OCT 28: Reigning girls under-12 world champion Koneru Humpy maintained her brilliant form to defeat British girl Jessie Gilbert and earn her fourth full point on an excellent day for India at the world age-group chess championships.

Aarthie Ramaswamy, in under-18 girls and Rahul Sangma in under-10, were also in exceptional form winning their games to lead their respective categories with four points. Nine players won, two drew with only one loss made a great day for India.

Humpy played the Nimzo Indian defence against the No 4 seed. The position was equal till the end but Jessie’s weak moves giving away queen to avoid mate spelt her doom.

Aarthie caused a major upset by beating the top seed, Evgenija Ovid of Russia in a King Pawn opening game where the Russian avoided the Ruy Lopez.

Aarthie kept the up pressure throughout and held positional advantage going into a double rook and pawn endgame. The Indian exchanged rooks to enter into a winning King and pawnendgame.

Sangma, who plays with lot of grit, made a weak opening and got into a bad position. However, he fought back to win a piece and clinch the issue.

P Harikishna played the English opening against highly-rated Arnaud Rainfray of France in the under-16 section. They agreed to a draw after 18 moves.

In the under-14 boys, MR Venkatesh faced the French defence against Justin Tan of Australia and got a slight edge by playing a strong opening game.

Tan overlooked a combination and Venkatesh broke through the King’s side to win after 28 moves.

Tania Sachdev played the classical variation against Austrian Anna Kopinits’ Sicilian Dragon. Tania played well and was helped by an error from her opponent.

Soumya Swaminathan girls u-10, Eesha Karavade under-12, Y Pratibha under-16, Sunil Rangarajan under-12 were the other Indians to win their fourth round games.