The Hindu- Robert Hovhannisyan of Armenia defeated Ray Robson of United States to maintain his half- point lead in the SDAT-Ramco World junior chess championship at Hotel Vijay Park here on Sunday. Hovhannisyan leads with 10 points after the penultimate round. Poland's Dariusz Swiercz won with the black pieces against Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia to take the second place with 9.5 points. The title race is between Hovhannisyan and Swiercz while Sahaj Grover can fight for the bronze medal. Hopes of Indians winning medals in the Open section became dim after the 12th round. Both Adhiban and Sethuraman disappointed after obtaining winning or extra pawns positions on the board. Adhiban started to make mistakes and lost the thread of the encounter from move 30. Short of time, Adhiban was down to the last 40 seconds at move 29 and his playing level collapsed. Sahaj Grover of Delhi won in 36 moves with the black pieces. Leading Indian scorers so far: Sahaj Grover 8.5; Adhiban, Sethuraman, Vidit Gujrathi 8 points. Russia's Olga Girya won a pawn in a tactic featuring a pin on move 23 and used that advantage to defeat Keti Tsatsalashvili of Georgia in 62 moves. Olga zoomed ahead into sole lead with 10.5 points. Cori Deysi played the French defence against Padmini Rout with the black pieces. The Lima-born girl was able to get into a better ending after a keenly fought middlegame. Cori had an outside passed pawn. Plenty of queening tactics put the strategy into a backseat. Padmini had a knight for black's pawn on the seventh rank. She played and fought resourcefully to check the black king repeatedly to draw in 63 moves. Bhakti Kulkarni defeated former World age group champion Klaudia Kulon of Poland. Bhakti's 34-move win came as a consolation as she noticed a tactic to win a bishop. Important results (round 12, Indians unless stated): Open: Hovhannisyan (Arm) 10 bt Ray Robson (USA) 8; Ter-Sahakyan (Arm) 8.5 lost to Swiercz (Pol) 9.5; Kovalev (Blr) 8.5 drew with Durarbeyli (Aze) 8.5; B. Adhiban (8) lost to Sahaj Grover (8.5); S.P. Sethuraman (8) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (8); Rasulov (Aze) 7.5 lost to Sjugirov (Rus) 8; Salgado (Esp) 8 bt Anwesh Upadhyaya (7); M. Shyam Sundar (7) lost to Shimanov (Rus) 8; Goganov (Rus) 8 bt Girish Koushik (7); Martinovic (Cro) 7 drew with Shyam Nikil (7); Hemant Sharma (6.5) lost to Lalith Babu (7.5); Abhishek Kelkar (6.5) lost to G.A. Stany (7.5); Vaibhav Suri (6.5) lost to Barbosa (Bra) 6.5; Ramnath Bhuvanesh (7) drew Praneeth Surya (7). Girls: Padmini Rout (8) drew with Cori Deysi (Per) 10; Olga Girya (Rus) 10.5 bt Tsatsalashbili (Geo) 7.5; Paikidze (Geo) 8.5 bt Gogodkina (Rus) 7.5; Nakhbayeva (Kaz) 7 lost to Bulmaga (Rom) 8.5; Bhakti Kulkarni (7.5) bt Klaudia Kulon (Pol) 6.5; Olsarova (Cze) 6.5 drew with Michelle Catherina (6.5); Sayumi Terao (Bra) 7 bt J. Saranya (6); G. Lasya (6) lost to Lkhamsuren (Mgl) 7; B. Pratyusha (6) lost to C. Divyasree (7); R. Bharathi (7) bt Pon N. Krithikha (6); P.V. Nandhidhaa (6) lost to Forestier (Fra) 6.5.

---