New Delhi: Second seed and former Commonwealth Under-12 champion Sidhant Mohapatra of Orissa joined overnight sole leader Karthikeyan Murali at top of point table after registering a contrasting victory over Y Grahesh of Andhra Pradesh in the ninth round of the National Under-13 Open Chess Championship here at Kulachi Hansraj Model School on Saturday.
Playing with black pieces, Mohapatra tested his Andhra Pradesh rival with sharp lines in exchange variation of Slav defence. With mate in sight, Grahesh shook the hand of his Orissa rival after 42 moves signaling a decisive result in favour of his opponent. Meanwhile overnight sole leader Karthikeyan Murali played a safe against his team mate Pranav Vijay in a closed Catalan game and signed the peace treaty in 30 moves. With seven and half points in the kitty, Pranav Vijay closely following the two leaders with a drift of half point. In other important encounters in the ninth round top seed Aravindh Chithambaram beat Harsha Bharathkoti of Andhra Pradesh while World Under-10 bronze medalist Abhimanyu Puranik and local lad Aradhya Garg defeated Ravindra Teja Muttineni of Andhra Pradesh and Debankan Dhara of West Bengal respectively to give company to top seed at joint third spot with seven points along with four others.
In the girls’ category, this is being held simultaneously, defending champion Monnisha G K maintained her sole lead with eight points after outwitting team mate Ashwini in the ninth round. Playing with black pieces in Ruy Lopez opening, Monnisha maneuvered her pieces to good effect and garnered full points after 29 moves. Meanwhile Ivana Maria Furtado defeated Rutuja Bakshi to keep a close check on Monnisha’s title defends with seven and half points.
Important Results :
Round-9 Open : Pranav Vijay of Tamilnadu (7.5) drew with Karthikeyan Murali of Tamilnadu (8); Grahesh Y of Andhra Pradesh (6.5) lost to Sidhant Mohapatra of Orissa (8); Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamilnadu (7) beat Harsha Bharathakoti of Andhra Pradesh (6); Naren Swaminathan of Tamilnadu (6.5) drew with Visakh N R of Tamilnadu (6.5); Sai Vishwesh C of Tamilnadu (6) lost to Rohan Ahuja of Goa (7); Chandar Raju of Kerala (6) lost to Pranavananda V of Andhra Pradesh (7); Raghav Srivathsav V of Andhra Pradesh (6) lost to Vignesh N R of Tamilnadu (7); Ravindra Teja Muttineni of Andhra Pradesh (6) lost to Abhimanyu Puranik of Maharashtra (7); Krishna Teja N of Andhra Pradesh (7) beat Nikhil Dixit of Maharahstra (6); Aradhya Garg of Delhi (7) beat Debankan Dhara of West Bengal (6); Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh of Maharashtra (6.5) beat Anantharam R U of Karnataka (5.5); Kumaran B of Tamilnadu (5.5) lost to Pavit Singh of Delhi (6.5); Suresh Krishna S of Puducherry (5.5) lost to Harshal Shahi of Delhi (6.5); Athul Krishna S of Kerala (5.5) lost to Badrinath S of Puducherry (6.5); Sai Agni Jeevitesh J of Andhra Pradesh (6.5) beat Akshay Bharadwaj of Karnataka.
Round-9 Girls : Ashwini U of Tamilnadu (6) lost to Monnisha G K of Tamilnadu (8); Ivana Maria Furtado of Goa (7.5) beat Rutuja Bakshi of Maharahstra (6); Mahalakshmi M of Tamilnadu (7) beat Vaishali R of Tamilnadu (6); Megha Gupta of Gujarat (6) lost to Shoumi Mukerjee of West Bengal (7); Akankhya Kabi of Orissa (6) drew with Shiny Das of Tripura (6); Dharani Sree R of Tamilnadu (5.5) lost to Priyamvada Karamcheti of Andhra Pradesh (6.5); Hilmi Parveen of Kerala (6) drew with Tarini Goyal of Chandigarh (6); Anigani Kavya of Andhra Pradesh (6.5) beat Gange Tanmayee of Maharahstra (5.5); Nishi Mahalaxmi Iyer of West Bengal (6) drew with Varshini V of Tamilnadu (6); Smaraki Mohanty of Orissa (5.5) drew with Harshita Guddanti of Andhra Pradesh (5.5); Meghna Upadhyay of Madhya Pradesh (5) lost to Manjula R of Tamilnadu (6); Chitlange Sakshi of Maharashtra (5.5) drew with Manasa H R of Karnataka (5.5); Chandreyee Hajra of West Bengal (6) beat Kratica Shekhawat of Rajasthan (5); Deekshidha P S of Tamilnadu (5) lost to Divya Garg of Maharashtra (6); Preethy P of Puducherry (5) lost to Sunyasakta Satpathy of Orissa (5.5).
