World Junior R7-8: Pranav maintains his sole lead, Aswath makes a strong comeback
05/03/2025 - GM Pranav Venkatesh defeated GM Yahli Sokolovsky (ISR) in Round 7 to increase his sole lead by a full point at World Junior 2025 Open. In the following round, Pranav drew with the top seed, GM Daniel Dardha (BEL). He is now at 7/8. IM Aswath S made a fantastic comeback after a 0.5/2 start. Then he won the next six games in-a-row, scoring a double hat-trick. He defeated GM Hamed Wafa (EGY) and FM Benik Agasarov (ARM) in the seventh and eighth round respectively to reduce the gap with Pranav. Aswath is the sole player at 6.5/7, a half point behind the sole leader. Pranav and Aswath will inevitably clash in Round 8 which starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 7:30 p.m. IST.