The 11th Asian Schools Chess Championships has completed the sixth round and so reached the two thirds stage.
Singapore’s Liu Xiangyi and Filipino IM Paolo Bersamina are tied for first with 5/6 in Open U-17 in contrast to World Schools Champion Shania Mae Mendoza from the Philippines crushing the opposition with 6/6 so far.
There is a leader by a whisker in Open U-15, Byambasuren Garimagnai from Mongolia on 5/6 just a half point ahead of a large chasing pack, and Isha Sharma from India with 5/6 is still leading ahead of the top seed, fellow country woman and World Schools Champion Tejaswini Sagar.
In Open U-13 Stephen Rome Pangilinan from the Philippines with 5.5/6 is a point clear, and in Girls U-13 there are three sharing the lead, Li Xinyu from China, Wong Ching Chi from Hong Kong and Assel Serikbay from Kazakhstan, all on 5/6.
Open U-11 is proving to be very competitive, Allen Chi Zhou Fan from New Zealand, Cyrus Nisban from Singapore and Rithvik R Raja from Indian all on 5/6. In contrast, the Girls U-11 has Nazerke Nurgali from Kazakhstan with 6/6 another runaway leader.
The top seed D Gukesh from India leads Open U-9 with 5.5/6 while World Schools Champion Amina Kaibekova from Kazahkstan with a perfect 6/6 score and a 1.5 point lead is running away from her rivals in Girls U-9.
In Open U-7 Ochir-Erdene Ariunbold from Mongolia leads with 5/6 and in Girls U-7 two players, top seeded Rodha Al Serkel from UAE and Muattar Juraeva from Uzbekistan share the lead, also with 5/6.
Report and photos by Peter Long
