Top seed and Women Grandmaster D Harika scored an emphatic victory over Mongontuul Bathu-yag of Mongolia and jumped to sole lead after the end of the 10th round of the World Junior girls’ chess championship.

Playing white, Harika took her tally to an impressive 8.5 points out of a possible 10.

Having lost the second round game against compatriot Padmini Rout, this has been an excellent comeback by Harika and she can now look forward to an improved finish which might see her becoming the new World Junior girls champion.

In the boys’ event, three times National Junior champion Abhijeet Gupta continued his dream run and outplayed So Wesley of Philippines to move to joint fourth.

Important results (round 10, Indians unless specified):

Boys: Georg Meier (Ger, 7) drew Wang Hao (Chn, 7.5); Ahmed Adly (Egy, 7) lt to Ivan Popov (Rus, 7.5); Avetik Grigoryan (Arm, 7.5) bt Arman Pashikian (Arm, 6.5); Ragger Markus (Aut, 6.5) drew Viktor Laznicka (Cze, 6.5); Dmitry Andreikin (Rus, 7) bt G N Gopal (6); So Wesley (Phi, 6) lt to Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 7); Parimarjan Negi (6) lt to Daniel Stellwagen (Ned, 6.5); Maxim Rodshtein (Isr, 6) drew G Rohit (6); Davit Jojua (Geo, 6.5) bt Deepan Chakkravarthy (5.5); Jan Priborsky (Cze, 5.5) drew Ashwin Jayaram (5.5).

Girls: Jolanta Zawadzka (Pol, 7.5) bt Vera Nebolsina (Rus, 8); D Harika (8.5) bt Mongontuul Bathuyag (Mgl, 6.5); Elena Tairova (Rus, 7) bt Melia Salome (Geo, 6.5); Diana Arutyunova (Ukr, 7) bt Eesha Karavade (6): Sabrina Vega Gutierrez (Esp, 6.5) drew Anna Gasik (Hun, 6.5); Sopiko Guramishvili (Geo, 6.5) drew Gulmira Dauletova (Kaz, 6.5); Tatevik A (Arm, 5.5) lt to P Priya (6.5); Bela Khotenashvili (Geo, 5) lt to Sona Pertlova (Cze, 6); Mary Ann Gomes (5.5) drew N Darbinyan (Arm, 5.5).