sports : India’s Divya Deshmukh defeated Bulgaria’s Beloslava Krasteva to win the World Junior Girls Chess Championship title in Gandhinagar on Thursday.International Master Divya scored 10 out of a possible 11 points, half a point ahead of second-placed Mariam Mkrtchyan of Armenia.Mkrtchyan dashed Rakshitha Ravi’s medal hopes in a one-sided game. Third place went to Azerbaijan’s Ayan Allahverdiyeva, who defeated Russia’s Norman Ksenia to score 8.5 points.In the Open section, Kazakhstan’s Nogarbek Kazybek emerged as the overnight sole leader.
Armenia of 2018, defeating Mamikon Gurbanyan of 2018 to win the title on better tiebreaks than Armenian Emin Ohanian. Ohanian played well against Daniel Quizon but fell behind on tiebreak points and had to settle for second place despite both scoring 8.5 points. Serbia’s Luka Budisavljevic (8 points) also finished third on tiebreak points and finished the tournament ahead of Germany’s Tobias Koele. The best Indian performance in the Open section was by Grandmaster Pranav Anand, who finished 10th with 7.5 points and won against Armenia’s Arsen Davtyan. Among other Indians, Aditya Samant finished 11th while Anuj Shrivatri finished 12th. But the day belonged to 18-year-old Divya from Nagpur.
The middle game against Beloslava was slightly better as the Indian player used a queen pawn opening. Divya’s constant pressure helped her extend her lead, significantly weakening Black’s pawn structure. This exchange did not cause any problems for Divya as the Indian player pocketed the pawn in the queen and rook endgame, leading to a 2-0 lead. Beloslava ‘s king became vulnerable. The timely exchange was about to lead to a perfect king and pawn final game for Divya when the Bulgarian player declared the game over. Divya later described her win over Ayan Allahverdiyeva as a key moment for her in the tournament. “I did not perform well in that game. If I had lost that game, I would not have become the champion,” she said.
