Tamil Nadu's P. Lokesh, the 22nd seed, shocked Karnataka's top-seeded G.A. Stany in the eight round of the 41st National junior chess championship at Margoa's Fatorda Stadium on Sunday.
It was Stany's third defeat and his second straight loss in this under-19 event.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu's P. Shyam Nikhil, the second-seeded IM who defeated Stany on Saturday, was in the sole lead with seven points, with four others — TN's S. Nitin, V.R. Aravindh Chithambaram, WB's Diptayan Ghosh and Maharashtra's Rakesh Kulkarni — closely following him.
The big seeds stayed steady in the girls' championship with Goa's Bhakti Kulkarni and Maharashtra's Rucha Pujari occupying the top two rungs after eight rounds in this 11-round event.
The results (open): K. Priyadarshan (TN, 6) lost to P. Shyam Nikhil (TN, 7), Ankit R. Rajpara (Guj, 6) drew with Diptayan Ghosh (WB, 6.5), S. Nitin (TN, 6.5) bt Padmini Rout (Ori, 5.5), Rakesh Kulkarni (6.5) bt Anurag Mhamal (Goa, 5.5), Sameer Kathmale (Mah, 5.5) lost to V.R. Aravindh Chithambaram (TN, 6.5), G.A. Stany (Ktk, 5) lost to P. Lokesh (TN, 6), R. Ramnath Bhuvanesh (TN, 6) bt M. Deepthamsh Reddy (AP, 5), Swayams Mishra (Ori, 5.5) drew with Niranjan Navalgund (TN, 5.5), Antonio Viani D'cunha (Ktk, 5) lost to S.L. Narayanan (Ker, 6), Hemant Sharma (Del, 5.5) drew with M.L. Abhilash Reddy (AP, 5.5).
Girls: Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa, 7) bt J. Saranya (TN, 5.5), Ivana Maria Furtado (Goa, 6) drew with Rucha Pujari (Mah, 6.5), Pratyusha Bodda (AP, 6) drew with A. Akshaya (TN, 6), Pon. Nkrithika (TN, 6.5) bt G. Lasya (AP, 5.5), R. Bharathi (TN, 5.5) drew with K. Sai Nirupama (AP, 5.5), Pallabi Roy (WB, 5.5) drew with Aparajita Gochhikar (Ori, 5.5), N. Akshaya (TN, 4.5) lost to P.V. Nandhidhaa (TN, 5.5), P. Michelle Catherine (TN, 5.5) bt Tarini Goyal (Chd, 4.5), Hinduja Reddy (AP, 4.5) lost to P. Bala Kannamma (TN, 5.5), Pavitra Jagtap (Ktk, 5) drew with R. Visalatchi (TN, 5).
