Halkias sacrificed his Queen for just a knight on move 19 in the Slav Defence and got a rook and piece in the next 10 moves to reach a comfortable ending with rook and double bishops against the Queen. Dean tried to sneak a draw and kept on playing but the game was lost in those 10 moves. The surprise of the round was credited to the hard-working Abdulla Al Rakib of Bangladesh, who had top seed Dao Thien Hai in all sorts of trouble in the first round. Rakib accounted for fifth seed GM Igor Alexander Nataf of France in 34 moves of Kings Indian Defence.

Sundararajan Kidambi regained lost ground in the third round. Kidambi won a pawn in the opening itself in Slav Defence against66th seed Dabelo Ronald of the Philippines. Kidambi won a second pawn on move 19 and then simplified the position to get a same coloured bishop ending with two extra pawns. The game lasted 52 moves.

Neelotpal Das, a product of the Goodricke Academy, did well to hold 14th seed Kalod Radek of Czechoslovakia in 31 moves of Sicilian Scheveningen. From a symmetrical position, the Queens were getting exchanged when the draw was agreed upon.

Sasikiran, RR Laxman and Sandipan Chanda drew their games against Tejas Bakre, Blehm Pawel and Aliev Rasim respectively.

VIJI, HOANG LEAD: Le Thi Phoung Lien, who created a flutter on Wednesday, fell under the relentless onslaught of IWM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman, who applied continuous pressure to punish the passive play of her opponent. Vijayalakshmi and Hoang Thanh Trang, with three points were in front at the end of the third round of the 15th World Junior Girls Chess Championship at Calicut Tower Auditorium on Thursday. Hoang Thanh Trang defeated Nguyen TTuongvan.

Vijayalakshmi slowly built her position inch by inch against the unambitious play of Le Thi Phoung Lien, who was happy confining her pieces to the backranks. Unable to bear the pressure, Le pushed 26 e4 which was the decisive mistake. Vijayalakshmi targeted e4 by keeping the Queen on c6, bishop on b7 and manoeuvering the knight to d6. There was no more support for the `e' pawn and Viji finished the job in 47 moves.

Pratibha continued to surprise by holding IWM Lakos Nikoletta to a draw. Lakos tried hard to break the shackles in the ending, but Pratibha defended well to get half-a-point.

RESULTS (Third round)

Men: Zhang Zhong (Chi) 2.5 drew Jenni Florian (Swi) 2.5; Banikas Hristodoulos (Gre) 3 bt Salmanssu Olli (Fin) 2; Socko Bartosz (Pol) 2 lost to Houska Miroslav (Eng) 3; Mirzoev Azer (Azer) 2 lost to Darmen Sadvakasov (Kaz) 3; Halkisa Stelios (Gre) 3 bt Ippolito Dean (US) 2; Williams Simon (Eng) 2 lost to Dao Thien Hai (Vie) 2.5; Neelotpal Das (Ind) 2 drew with Kalod Radek (Cze) 2;Suderarajan Kidambi (Ind) 2.5 bt Dabelo Ronald (Phi) 1.5; Soln Promoz (Sloven) 1.5 drew with Farid Abbasov (Azer) 1.5; Saurabh Kherdekar (Ind) 1 lost to Laurent Fressinet (Fra) 2; Bojan Vuckovic (Yug) 2 bt Janz Freric (Ger) 1; Groetz Harald (Aut) 1.5 drew with Herraz Herminio (Spa) 1.5; Diego Belmonte (Arg) 2 bt Danny Goldenberg (Can) 1; Nirosh De Sliva (SL) 1 lost to I Khamrukulov (Uzb) 2; Sergei Fedorchuk (Ukr) 2.2 drew with Ruud Janssen (Net) 2.5.

Women: Xu Yuan Yuan (2.5) drew with Iweta Radziewicz (2.5), Hoang Thanh Trang (3) bt Nguyen T Tuongvan (2), Le Thi Phoung Lien (2) lost to S Vijayalakshmi (3), Monica Bobrowska (2.5) bt Isabel Werner (1.5), Joanna Dworakowska (2) drew Iroda Khamrakulova (2), Y Pratibha (2) drew with Lakos Nikoletta (2), Jana Jackova (2) bt Koneru Humpy (1), Irina Krush (2) bt Yuette Erwee (1), Jovanka Houska (2) bt Swathi Ghate (2), Jelena Miloradovic (1) lost to Alena Bekiarisova (2), Pallavi Shah (2) bt S Meenakshi (1), Maria Kouvatsov (1.5) drew Nina Dokhmanovic(1.5), Aarthie Ramaswamy (2) bt Riznar Helena (0.5), Swati Mohota (1.5) bt Smalkovic Lejla (0.5), Sorli Maja (0.5) lost to Sofia Henziques (1.5), Oya Demirdag (0.5) lost to Ciuksyte Zivile (1), Sanchez Sarai Caroli (1) bt Claire Marchadour (0), Tania Stumberger (1) bt Narelle Szuveges (0), Penas Yolanda bye.