New Delhi: The Asian Junior Chess Championship heading for a close finish as four players are now sharing the lead in the open section with just two rounds remaining.
The seventh round produced some exciting matches and unexpected results. Top seed and overnight joint leader Aravindh Chithambaram suffered a shock defeat from International Master Mousavi Seyed Khalil of Iran in a Queen’s Indian Defence game which lasted 44 moves while other leader S L Narayanan forced to sign the peace treaty with Arjun Kalyan. These results helped second seed Karthikeyan Murali to join the leaders’ board as he outwitted Rakesh Kumar Jena in a well crafted game.
But the star of the day was West Bengal youngster Rajdeep Sarkar, who overpowered Iranian International Master Mosadeghpour Masoud in 71 moves and jumped to the pole position with five and half points along with Narayanan, Mousavi and Karthikeyan.
In the girls section, top seed Vaishali escaped from the claws of defeat as her opponent Chandreyye Hajra messed up a clear winning game to share the point in an English Opening. Vaishali and Hajra are in lead with five and half points while former champion Ivana Maria Furtado, Balakannamma and Priyanka along with Mongolian girl Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh are closely following the leaders with a drift of half points.
Ivana defeated Akshaya Nandakumar while Bala, Priyanka and Uuriintuya defeated Sakshi Chitlange, Divya Lakshmi and Nandhidhaa PV respectively in seventh round encounter.
Important Results (Indian otherwise stated) :-
Open Round-7 :- IM Mousavi Seyed Khalil of Iran (5.5) beat GM Aravindh Chithambaram (5); GM S L Narayanan (5.5) drew with Arjun Kalyan (5); GM Karthikeyan Murali (5.5) beat FM Rakesh Kumar Jena (4.5); FM Rajdeep Sarkar (5.5) beat IM Mosadeghpour Masoud of Iran (4.5); IM Krishna Teja N (4) lost to FM Nima Javanbakht (5); Harsha Bharathakoti (4.5) drew with Srijit Paul (4.5); Rakesh Kumar Nayak (4.5) drew with Rahul Srivatshav P (4.5); Sammed Jaykumar Shete (5) beat Rustem Nazarov of Turkmenistan (4); Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (4.5) beat Prananvanda V (3.5); FM Ankit Gajwa (4) drew with Chakravarthi Reddy (4).
Girls Round-7 :- WFM Vaishali R (5.5) drew with WCM Chandreyee Hajra (5.5); WIM Nandhidhaa P V (4.5) lost to Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh of Mongolia (5); Akshaya Nandakumar (4) lost to WIM Ivana Maria Furtado (5); Harshita Guddanti (4.5) drew with Hamedi Nia Vesal of Iran (4.5); WIM Sakshi Chitlange (4) lost to Bala Kannamma P (5); Priyanka K (5) beat Divya Lakshmi R (4); Priyank Nutakki (4.5) beat WCM Ananya Suresh (4); Jemal Ovezdurdiyeva of Turkmenistan (3.5) lost to Varshini V (4.5); WCM Saloni Sapale (3.5) lost to Sunyuktha CMN (4.5); Shweta Gole (4.5) beat WFM Tarini Goyal (3).
