Souyma Swaminathan wins World Junior Chess Championship

Pune based Indian Soumya Swaminathan, achieved what only five other Indians have achieved in world chess - she has won the World Junior girls chess championship at Puerto Madryn, Argentina on Thursday, November 4.

The 20 year old woman grandmaster, tallied 10 points in this under-20 tournament. Soumya was seeded ninth in the tournament and needed a victory in the last round. This win has given her direct entry to the Women's World Championship.

“This is a big achievement. With this title, she will directly qualify for the junior World cup in Russia later this month. Almost every junior champion has performed well in the World Chess Championship. That is why this title is more prestigious”, said GM Abhijeet Kunte. Soumya has been training with Kunte's Academy for the past three years.

In the thirteenth and final round, Soumya defeated Kubra Ozturk of Turkey for a place in world history. She became the third Indian girl after Koneru Humpy (2002) and Dronavalli Harika (2008) to win the World Junior Girls championship. The World Junior title has also been won by Vishwanathan Anand (1987), P Harikrishna (2004) and Abhijeet Gupta (2008).

India has retained the girl's title this time. Soumya was tied for the first place with two others but had the better tie-break score to end up as a winner. All of them scored 9.5 points from 13 games. In the final round, she started on 8.5 points and Cori Tello was also on 8.5. But, Betul Yildiz of Turkey was better placed on nine points.

While leader Yildiz only drew against Orissa's Kiran Mohanty, Soumya and Cori Tello won their games to be tied for the first place on 9.5 points. When the official results were declared, Soumya had the higher tie-break score of 27314, higher than Cori Tello's 27250 and Yildiz's 27052. Soumya was in command in the event but a penultimate round defeat pushed her down from which she rose to win the tournament.

Soumya was born in Palakkad in 1989 and her family shifted to Pune. The city's chess administrator Joseph D'Souza said, "In her trip to Europe last year, she made five norms in one and a half months."

Saumya studies commerce at the BMCC College. She is studying on the scholarship provided by a petroleum company, Joseph informed. Soumya has won several national titles including the national U-17 in 2004 and the national junior titles in 2005 and 2008. Her rating is 2297 and she played at 2433 Elo and would be gaining about ten Elo points from this event.

At the tournament, she won eight games, lost two and drew three games for the title. The highest rated player she defeated was second seed Xiaowen Zhang of China. She did not face the top seed Mary Ann Gomes of Kolkata.