Aarthie continued to lead the under-18 field with eight points, half-a-point ahead of the top seed with two more rounds to go in this Swiss Format event.In the ninth round last night, Aarthie faced the modern defence of her opponent and attacked on the rival king's side by keeping her king in the centre.

She won a pawn and later won two more to force three pawns and rook versus rook endgame. Faced with a hopeless task, Dana gave up on the 49th move.In the girls' under-12, top seed Koneru Humpy moved to within half-point of the leader with a steady win against Anna Kohit of Poland. Humpy is now in second place on eight points.

Humpy won a pawn and then entered into a rook and bishop versus rook and knight ending with her rook on the seventh rank when Anna resigned on the 49th move.

The other winners for India were P Harikrishna (boys'under-16), Sunil Rangarajan (boys under-12) and M R Venkatesh (boys under-14).

In the boys' under-10, India's hopes of winning the title suffered a setback, when Rahul Sangma, the overnight joint leader lost to Haoyu Li of China to slip into the joint third position. Sangma played the French Defence and the game transposed into a king's Indian attack. Rahul played well and in the middle game won a pawn.

Thereafter, his opponent attacked desperately and gave up another pawn and sacrificed a piece. It was an incorrect attack, but Sangma missed a move and played the wrong defensive line to concede the game.

In the boys' under-14, Venkatesh kept India's medal hopes alive with a victory over the ninth seed Nidjat Mamedov of Azerbaijan.

In the boys' under-16, P Harikrishna outwitted fifth seed Sergei Azarov of Belgrade. Harikrishna faced the Queen's Gambit declined and played the exchange variation. In the middle game, he attacked relentlessly against the black King and finally succeeded when his opponentblundered and lost the game.