New Delhi: Second seed and former commonwealth under-12 gold medalist Sidhant Mohapatra taken sole lead with eight and half points after signing peace treaty with his Tamilnadu rival Pranav Vijay in the penultimate round of the ongoing 25th National Under-13 Chess Championship here at Kulachi Hansraj Model School, Ashok Vihar on Sunday.
But the shock defeat of overnight joint leader Karthikeyan Murali of Tamilnadu by the hands Krishna Teja of Andhra Pradesh made the championship wide open as six players including top seed Aravindh Chithamabaram are on second spot with a drift of just half point from the leader. World Under-10 bronze medalist Abhimanyu Puranik and Vignesh N R of Tamilnadu along with Kathikeyan Murali, Pranav Vijay and Krishna Teja are giving company to Chithambaram in the point table. Puranik beat local hope Aradhya Garg while Vignesh outwitted Rohan Ahuja of Goa in the tenth round.
In the eleventh and final round on Monday morning, Mohapatra takes on Chithambaram while Puranik, Teja and Murali paired against Pranav Vijay, Vignesh and Badrinath respectively.
In the girls’ section, defending champion Monnisha G K on course to her title defence as she produced an impressive victory over Shoumi Mukerjee in the tenth round. Playing with white pieces in Sicilian defence, Monnisha displayed her sheer class to overcome her West Bengal rival in 55 moves to extend her sole lead to full point.
Meanwhile top seed Ivana Maria Furtado suffered her first defeat in the championship by the hands of M Mahalakshmi of Tamilnadu. Playing white side of Rubinstein variation of Nimzo-Indian defence, Mahalakshmi exposed Ivana’s defence with her bishop and rook in the middle game to register a crucial win in her favour. In the final round Monnisha takes on Mahalakshmi, who is occupying the second spot with eight points. Ivana and Priyamvada Karamcheti of Andhra Pradesh, who beat Vaishali R of Tamilnadu in the penultimate round, are in joint third spot with seven and half points.
Important Results:
Round-10 Open : Sidhant Mohapatra of Orissa (8.5) drew with Pranav Vijay of Tamilnadu (8); Karthikeyan Murali of Tamilnadu (8) lost to Krishna Teja N of Andhra Pradesh (8); Pranavananda V of Andhra Pradesh (7) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamilnadu (8); Vignesh N R of Tamilnadu (8) beat Rohan Ahuja of Goa (7); Abhimanyu Puranik of Maharahstra (8) beat Aradhya Garg of Delhi (7); Sai Agni Jeevitesh J of Andhra Pradesh (7) drew with Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh of Maharashtra (7); Visakh N R of Tamilnadu (7.5) beat Grahesh Y of Andhra Pradesh (6.5); Harshal Shahi of Delhi (6.5) lost to Siva Mahadevan of Tamilnadu (7.5); Pavit Singh of Delhi (7) drew with Naren Swaminathan of Tamilnadu (7); Badrinath S of Puducherry (7.5) beat Satvik M of Karnataka (6.5); Anirudh V Bhat of Goa (6) lost to Hetul Shah of Gujarat (7); Sai Vishwesh C of Tamilnadu (7) beat Anand Nadar of Maharahstra (6); Debankan Dhara of West Bengal (7) beat Chandar Raju of Kerala (6); Sayantan Chandra of West Bengal (6) lost to Nishant Kumar of Jharkhand (7); Harsha Bharathakoti of Andhra Pradesh (6.5) drew with Raghav Srivathsav V of Andhra Pradesh (6.5).
Round-10 Girls : Monnisha G K of Tamilnadu (9) beat Shoumi Mukerjee of West Bengal (7); Mahalakshmi M of Tamilnadu (8) beat Ivana Maria Furtado of Goa (7.5); Shiny Das of Tripura (7) drew with Anigani Kavya of Andhra Pradesh (7); Priyamvada Karamcheti of Andhra Pradesh (7.5) beat Vaishali R of Tamilnadu (6); Manjula R of Tamilnadu (7) beat Rutuja Bakshi of Maharashtra (6); Ashwini U of Tamilnadu (7) beat Chandreyee Hajra of West Bengal (6); Tarini Goyal of Chandigarh (6.5) drew with Megha Gupta of Gujarat (6.5); Divya Garg of Maharashtra (7) beat Akankhya Kabi of Orissa (6); Nishi Mahalaxmi Iyer of West Bengal (6) lost to Hilmi Parveen of Kerala (7); Sunyasakata Satpathy of Orissa (6.5) beat Dhanashree Pandit of Maharashtra (5.5); Varshini V of Tamilnadu (5.5) lost to Asmita Das Munshi of West Bengal (6.5); Shweta Priyadharshini of Uttarpradesh (6.5) beat Smaraki Mohanty of Orissa (5.5); Divya Lakshmi R of Tamilnadu (6.5) beat Gange Tanmayee of Maharashtra (5.5); Meghna C H of Kerala (6) drew with Chitlange Sakshi of Maharashtra (6); Manasa H R of Karnataka (6) drew with Dharani Sree R of Tamilnadu (6).
