New Delhi: Defending champion G K Monnisha of Tamilnadu beat Hilmi Parveen of Kerala in the eighth round to take sole lead with seven points in the girls category of ongoing National Under-13 championship here at Kulachi Hansraj Model School on Friday.
Meanwhile in the Open section, all the top three boards produced decisive results and overnight sole leader Karthikeyan Murali maintained his lead after beating team mate Visakh N R on the top board. This crucial victory enabled Murali to maintain his half point lead over nearest contenders Sidhant Mohapatra of Orissa and state mate Pranav Vijay. Mohapatra defeated Harsha Bharathakoti of Andhra Pradesh while Pranav outwitted Debankan Dhara of West Bengal.
Playing white side of Sicilian Najdorf game, Murali not granted any chance to his state mate rival to seal the match in 45 moves. Mohapatra employed unusual lines in the Sicilian defence to overcome Bharathakoti in 44 moves with black pieces and Pranav taken only 31 moves in Queen’s Gambit accepted game to garner full point against his West Bengal rival. In the ninth round on Saturday Murali takes on Pranav while Sidhant paired against Y Grahesh of Andhra Pradesh, who beat local hope Harshal Shahi in the eighth round battle.
Playing with white pieces, Monnisha displayed a finely crafted middle game in Scandinavian defence to overcome her Kerala rival in 56 moves while top seed and overnight joint leader Ivana Maria Furtado failed to produce a decisive result in her favour against Tripura rival Shiny Das in a Tarrasch variation of French Defence game and signed the peace treaty in 50 moves. This crucial results in the eighth round enabled Monnisha to take the slender half point lead over Ivana. Ivana is occupying the lone second spot in the point table with six and half points.
Important Results :
Round-8 Open : Karthikeyan Murali of Tamilandu (7.5) beat Visakh N R of Tamilnadu (6); Harsha Bharathakoti of Andhra Pradesh (6) lost to Sidhant Mohapatra of Orissa (7); Pranav Vijay of Tamilnadu (7) beat Debankan Dhara of West Bengal (6); Rohan Ahuja of Goa (6) drew with Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamilnadu (6); Pranavanda V of Andhra Pradesh (6) drew with Naren Swaminathan of Tamilnadu (6); Harshal Shahi of Delhi (5.5) lost to Grahesh Y of Andhra Pradesh (6.5); Abhimanyu Puranik of Maharashtra (6) drew with Raghav Srivathsav of Andhra Pradesh (6); Pavit Singh of Delhi (5.5) drew with Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh of Maharahstra (5.5); Anirudh V Bhat of Goa (5) lost to Sai Vishwesh C of Tamilnadu (6); Kaustuv Kundu of West Bengal (5) lost to Chandar Raju of Kerala (6); Vignesh N R of Tamilnadu (6) beat Ritviz Parab of Goa (5); Adethya R of Tamilnadu (5) lost to Krishna Teja N of Andhra Pradesh (6); Nishant Kumar of Jharkhand (5) lost to Ravindra Teja Muttineni of Andhra Pradesh (6); Nikhil Dixit of Maharashtra (6) beat Anand Nadar of Maharashtra (5); Manu M of Kerala (5) lost to Satvik M of Karnataka (6).
Round-8 Girls : Shiny Das of Tripura (6) drew with Ivana Maria Furtado of Goa (6.5); Monnisha G K of Tamilnadu (7) beat Hilmi Parveen of Kerala (5.5); Rutja Bakshi of Maharashtra (6) drew with Mahalakshmi M of Tamilnadu (6); Shoumi Mukerjee of West Bengal (6) beat Anigani Kavya of Andhra Pradesh (5.5); Vaishali R of Tamilnadu (6) beat Deekshidha P S of Tamilnadu (5); Manjula R of Tamilnadu (5) lost to Ashwini U of Tamilnadu (6); Divya Garg of Maharashtra (5) lost to Megha Gupta of Gujarat (6); Gange Tanmayee of Maharashtra (5.5) drew with Dharani Sree R of Tamilnadu (5.5); Tarini Goyal of Chandigarh (5.5) beat Sunyasakta Satpathy of Orissa (4.5); Varshini V of Tamilnadu (5) drew with Chandreyee Hajra of West Bengal (5); Priyamvada Karamcheti of Andhra Pradesh (5.5) beat Asmita Das Munshi of West Bengal (4.5); Divya Lakshmi R of Tamilnadu (4.5) lost to Nishi Mahalaxmi Iyer of West Bengal (5.5); Meghna C H of Kerala (4.5) lost to Akankhya Kabi of Orissa (5.5); Saughanthika A S of Tamilnadu (4) lost to Smaraki Mohanty of Orissa (5); Kavisha S Shah of Gujrat (4.5) drew with Varsha C K of Tamilnadu (4.5).
