Luke Mendonca of Goa widened his lead to a full point at the end of the seventh round of the National under-9 chess championship in Puducherry on Saturday.
Mendonca exploited the weak pawn structure of higher-rated Arya to pick up a pawn on move 27.
Subsequently, in a tactical skirmish, Mendonca (with black), won a rook and went on to register his seventh straight win.
Top seed Praggnanandhaa sacrificed a knight on move 37 and checkmated his teammate Harshad on 41.
Praggnanandhaa, Sai Pranav and Abhishek share the second spot with six points.
Gunjal, Bhagyashree, Krisha and Rakshitta share the second spot with six points each.
Important results (round seven): Open: Arya Bhakta (WB) 5.5 lost to Luke Mendonca (Goa) 7; Praggnanandhaa (TN) 6 bt S. Harshad (TN) 5; Ruhaan Mahindru (Mah) 5 lost to Sai Pranav (AP) 6.
Adarsh Tripathi (Del) 5 lost to A.R. Abhishek (Ker) 6.
Girls: Divya Deshmukh (Mah) 6.5 drew with Bhagyashree Patil (Mah) 6; Gunjal C. (Goa) 6 bt Aditi M. (Odi) 5.5; Krisha Khandelwal (Mah) 6 bt C. Vyshnavi (AP) 5; R. Mohana (TN) 4.5 lost to Rakshitta R. (TN) 6.
