Top seed Women Grandmaster D Harika continued with her fine form and downed Sopiko Guramishvili of Georgia in the fifth round of the World Junior girls’ chess championship here on Monday.

Playing white, this was Harika’s third victory on the trot and she is in joint second spot behind  Russian Vera Nebolsina.

Harika’s compatriot  Eesha Karavade, Soumya Swaminathan and six others one point behind the Russian .
Amongst other Indian girls in the fray, Mary Ann Gomes and Padmini Rout suffered defeats at the hands of Mongontuul Bathuyag of Mongolia and Bela Khotenashvili of Georgia respectively while P Priya split the point with local Varduhi Kalashyan.

In the World Juniors championship, country’s latest GM G N Gopal remained within striking distance of sole leader So Wesley of Philippines after holding GM Viktor Laznicka of Czech Republic to a draw.

Deepan Chakkravarthy’s juggernaut was halted by Dmitry Andreikin of Russia. World’s youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi was held to a draw by Llaneza Vega Marcos.

Important results (round 5, Indians unless specified):

Junior: Viktor Laznicka (Cze, 3.5) drew with G N Gopal (3.5); Deepan Chakkravarthy (3.5) drew with Dmitry Andreikin (Rus, 3.5); Llaneza Vega Marcos (Esp, 3) drew with Parimarjan Negi (3.5); Molner Mackenzie (Usa, 2.5) lt to Ashwin Jayaram (3.5); G Rohit (2) lt to Maxat Alaguzov (Kaz, 3); Abhijeet Gupta (3) bt Stefan Mijovic (Mne, 2); Abhishek Das (2) lt to Nino Vlashki (Bul, 3); R Arun Karthik (1.5) drew with Ilja Vovk (Est, 1.5).

Girls:  Eesha Karavade (4) drew with Sanrina Vega Gutierrez (Spain, 4); D Harika (4) bt Sopiko Guramishvili (Geo, 3); Bela Khotenashvili (Geo, 4) bt Padmini Rout (3); Soumya Swaminathan (4) bt Anna Hairapetian (3);
Mongontuul Bathuyag (Mgl, 3.5) bt Mary Ann Gomes (2.5); Varduhi Kalashyan (Arm, 2.5) drew  P Priya (2.5).