R Praggnanandhaa’s winning run at the World Junior (Under-20) Chess championship was halted on Sunday when he drew with Chinese’s IM Xu Xiangyu in the sixth round in Travisio, Italy.
The 12-year-old had beaten two Grandmasters in successive rounds before the rest day and was expected to go for his third successive win to try and take pole position in the standings.
However, the battle of the two second position players ended in a stalemate after just 34 moves as they both took their tally to five and now share the second spot with three others.
While the draw allowed the two to stay on course for a title charge, defending champion and overnight leader Kirill Alekseeenko suffered a reversal against GM Aryan Tari of Norway and conceded the top spot to him.
Among other Indians in fray, Karthikeyan Murali, Aravindh Chithambaram and Shardul Gagare are in joint third spot with 4.5 points to show for their effort. While Chithambaram was held to a draw by FM Aleksey Sorokin, Karthikeyan defeated Lukasz Jarmula playing white and Gagare got the better of Sumiya Bilguun with black pieces.
In the girl’s section, Praggnanandhaa’s sister R Vaishali defeated Anna Styazhkina to jump to joint third position along with compatriot Aakanksha Hagawane, who she will meet in Round 7.
IM Zhansaya Abdumalik continues to lead the standings with 5.5 points with three others half a point behind her.