Kateryna escapes checkmate to maintain lead over Negi

New Delhi, Dec 22 (UNI) World's youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi came within inches of securing his first win but Lady Luck smiled on his opponent as Ukrainian Woman Grandmaster Kateryna Lahno escaped a certain checkmate to maintain her lead after the sixth game of the Amity Grandmasters Challenge here today.

After the fifth draw out of six games played so far, the Ukrainian now leads 3.5 to 2.5 with six rapid and six blitz games still remaining in the match.

After a tentatative start, Kateryna seemed to lose the plot in the middle game with Parimarjan marshalling his troops well for his first win.

Cornering Kateryna's black king, Parimarjan was in time pressure and his attempt to finish the game in one-go did not yield dividends. As luck would have had it, the Indian missed a checkmate in six moves and had to settle for a draw after 39 moves.

''I had a feeling there should be something decisive but I simply did not think about the forced winning sequence,'' Parimarjan said after the game.

''Kateryna was lucky to escape a certain defeat,'' her coach Grandmaster Ruslan Scherbakov admitted, adding, ''it is not difficult to miss such checkmates but then I have seen it so many times.'' The match now moves on to the second phase, as the players cross swords in six rapid games starting Friday. The finale with six blitz games will be played on the Christmas day.

UNI DH RR KN1933