JAIPUR, Oct 1: Abhijit Kunte has almost assured himself of the title and the Grandmaster Norm when he accounted for his sixth opponent, Philippino Elwin Retanal, in what was his greatest escape to victory in the six rounds so far, in the Asian Junior Chess Championships at the Jai Mahal Palace Hotel here today.As a result, Kunte managed to retain his clear 1.5 points advantage over the rest of the field. In the girls section, Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman closed in on the leader, China's Li Roufan, when she defeated Nivedita Sagade. Viji has 4.5 points, trailing the Chinese by half a point. Roufan settled for her second consecutive draw, against Lee Heng Jun of Malaysia.Trailing Kunte is Malaysian Mas Hafizulhelmi, who defeated Milan Turpanov in 28 moves. Hafizulhelmi is probably the only rated player Kunte has to face now. He has battled against all the top notch players and should be assured of the norm once he passes the Malaysian hurdle.Among the other Indians, Manthan Choksi won against Viktor Ten of Kazakhastan; Lakshman did so against Bangladeshi Dewan Amin; Nisha Mohota drew with Sri Lankan Chandra Rathnayake while Neelotpal Das lost to Amir Bhageri of Iran.Today it was a protracted battle for the Indian top seed. In the Petroff Defence game, equality was achieved once the queens were exchanged off. Both the players had two rooks, bishop, knight and five pawns each. Kunte even offered a draw to the Philippino but he rejected it.Elwin then lost a pawn on the h5 square. Even the bishops were exchanged off and Kunte was left with two pawns which were queening in the end game. He won in 70 moves.Vijayalakshmi and Sagade were reaching a drawish ending after the former adopted the Slav defence of queen's gambit. The queens were exchanged off but in time pressure, Sagade lost her bishop and gave up after 33 moves. In the girls' top-board game arising out of Sicilian defence, Roufan and Lee Heng Jun exchanged off their queens after 32 moves. As the game progressed, they lost almost all their major pieces and were left with a knight and six pawns each. A draw was reached after 41 moves.In the boys second-board game, Turpanov dared Hafizulhelmi, the under-16 Commonwealth champion, to a discovered mate and won when the Kyrgistan player, faced with loss of another piece after giving away the double bishop pair, conceded defeat.Results (6th round): Boys: Abhijit Kunte (Ind) bt Elwin Retanal (Phi); Mas Hafizulhelmi (Mal) bt Milan Turpanov (Kyr); Phan Minh Hoang (Viet) bt Saug Mohammed (UAE); Amir Bageri (Iran) bt Neelotpal Das (Ind); Dewan Shahidul Amin (Bangladesh) lost to RR Laxman (Ind); Yuki Tanaka (Japan) lost to Manjula Jayasinghe (SL).Girls: Li Rofan (Chn) drew with Lee Heng Jun (Mal); Nivedita Sagade (Ind) lost to Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman (Ind); Sherri Joy (Philippines) bt Oxana Maximenko (Kaz); Hoang My Thu (Viet) lost to Irina Gorshkova (Uzb); Mona Salman Mahini (Iran) drew with Aleksandra Samaganova (Kyr); Nisha Mohota (Ind) drew with Chandra Ratnayake (Sri Lanka).Standings: Boys: Kunte 6 points; Hafizulhelmi 4.5; Phan 4; Retanal, Turpanov 3.5; Saud, Bagheri, Choksi 3; Neelotpal, Lakshman 2.5; Dewan, Tanaka 1.5; Jayasinghe 1.Girls: Roufan 5; Vijayalakshmi 4.5; Sherri 4; Maximenko, Sagade 3.5; Lee Eng, Gorshkova 3; Mahini, Mohota, Samaganova 2.5; Rathnayake 0.5.
