New Delhi: Grandmaster S L Narayanan maintained his sole lead after defeating Iranian International Master Mosadeghpour Masoud in the open section with five points while girls section found a new sole leader as Nandhidhaa P V moved to the pole position with four and half points after defeating overnight sole leader R Vaishali in the fifth round of ongoing Asian Junior Open Chess Championship here at Hotel Park Plaza on Saturday.
Narayanan was a class act on Saturday afternoon with his white pieces against Masoud in a Petroff defence game. He put enormous pressure on the King side of his Iranian rival in the middle game to put his opponent in extreme time pressure. Masoud found his flag fall on fortieth move signaling a well crafted victory for Narayanan.
In girls section, Vaishali made crucial mistakes in the opening itself and grabbing the opportunity, Nandhidhaa made good use of her double bishop and double rook combination to uproot the defence of her top seed rival.
The other top boards battles in the open section ended without decisive result as top seed Aravindh Chithambaram signed the peace treaty with second seed Karthikeyan Murali while Rahul Srivatshav held Iranian International Master Mousavi Seyed Khalil. In girl’s category Chandreyee Hajra moved to joint second spot with four points after defeating second seed V Varshini and giving company to Vaishali along with Bala Kannamma, who defeated Akshaya Nandakumar in fifth round.
Important Results (Indian otherwise stated) :-
Open Round-5 :- GM S L Narayanan (5) beat IM Mosadeghpour Masoud of Iran (3.5); GM Aravindh Chithambaram (4) drew with GM Karthikeyan Murali (3.5); IM Mousavi Seyed Khalil of Iran (3.5) drew with Rahul Srivastshav (3.5); FM Rajdeep Sarkaar (4) beat FM Nima Javanbakht of Iran (3); IM Krishna Teja N (3.5) drew with Arjun Kalayan (3.5); Sammed Jaykumar Shete (3) lost to FM Rakesh Kumar Jena (4); Karthik V (3) drew with Saurabh Anand (3); FM Harshal Shahi (2.5) lost to Pranavanada V (3.5); Adithya S (2.5) lost to FM Ankit Gajwa (3.5); Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (3.5) beat Atharva Godbole (2.5).
Girls Round-5 :- WFM Vaishali R (4) lost to WIM Nandhidhaa P V (4.5); WCM Chandreyee Hajra (4) beat WFM Varshini V (3); Priyanka K (3.5) drew with Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh of Mongolia (3.5); WIM Sakshi Chitlange (3.5) drew with WIM Ivana Maria Furtado (3.5); Akshaya Nandakumar (3) lost to Bala Kannamma P (4); WIM Michelle Catherina (2.5) lost to Hamedi Nia Vesal of Iran (3.5); Harshita Guddanti (3.5) beat WCM Isha Sharma (2.5); Sunyuktha C M N (3) drew with WFM Tarini Goyal (3); Jemal Ovezdurdiyeva of Turkmenistan (2.5) lost to WCM Ananya Suresh (3.5); WCM Saloni Sapale (3) beat WFM Supreetha Potluri (2).
