Fourth-seeded Shahil Dey of Assam and fifth-seeded Raahil Mullick of Maharashtra joined second-seeded H. Bharath Subramaniyam of Tamil Nadu at the top in the fifth round of Open category of National under-seven chess here on Thursday.
Raahil Mullick, playing black, surprised top seeded Dev Shah, also of Maharashtra, who had to concede defeat after getting his bishop trapped in the 19th move. Dev essayed the Exchange Variation against Slav Defence and obtained a promising position, which he squandered by grabbing a pawn prematurely.
In the girls’ category, top-seeded Sinthia Sarkar of Bengal overcame Tanisha Chatterjee (Bengal) to lead with five points from as many rounds. She was joined at the top by S.B. Savitha of Tamil Nadu, who defeated Nungshithoi Ngairangbam of Manipur to maintain her winning form.
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Open category (fifth round): Dev Shah (Mah) 4 lost to Raahil Mullick (Mah) 5, Aditya Anurakta Mohanty (Odi) 4 lost to H. Bharath Subramaniyam (TN) 5, S. Roshan (TN) 4 lost to Shahil Dey (Asm) 5.
Bhavik Ahuja (Del) 3.5 lost to S. Maheswar (Del) 4.5, S. Ryan Priyank (TN) 3.5 lost to Garv Rai (Del) 4.5, Honi Arora (Raj) 4 bt G. Gowtham Reddy (AP) 3, Prraneeth Vuppala (Tel) 4 bt B. Kanish Vikraman Adithan (TN) 3, Shreyash Subham Patnaik (Odi) 4 bt Krishnasanketh Reddi (AP) 3, Ishant Kumar (Jhar) 3.5 drew with Chandrani Shlok (Mah) 3.5.
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