Top seed Sai Krishna of Andhra Pradesh defeated Pranav Vijay of Tamil Nadu in the seventh round to wrest the sole lead (6.5 points) in the National sub-junior chess championship, here on Friday.
On the top table, Pranav ventured for a wrong tactic where he lost two pieces for a rook. Although Pranav managed to pull out one trapped knight, Sai Krishna had by then established a central pawn mass and was well placed. Sai Krishna won following another mistake by his opponent in the end.
Akash of Chennai defeated Statemate Chaithanyaa in 54 moves in a minor piece ending. Chaithanyaa allowed a protected passed pawn unnecessarily for his opponent and Akash also played the endgame well to win. Akash has six points. Ten players, including second seed Girish Koushik (Karnataka) are in third spot with 5.5 points.
Michelle unstoppable
In the girls' section, Michelle Catherina of Chennai beat defending champion Nandhidhaa of Namakkal in 141 moves to extend her lead to 1.5 points. She has full seven points.
Going for victory, Nandhidhaa shunned a 22-move draw by avoiding three-fold repetition with her queen. Michelle sacrificed a pawn for play in the middle. Nandhidhaa only enjoyed a tiny advantage of space in a queen and rook ending. In the subsequent queen ending, Michelle had an extra bishop pawn and promoted it.
Seven players share the second place with 5.5 points.
Important results (round seven):
Boys: Pranav Vijay (TN) 5.5 lost to G.V. Sai Krishna (AP) 6.5, G. Akash (TN) 6 bt K.G. Chaithanyaa (TN) 5, Karma Pandya (Guj) 5.5 drew with S.L. Narayanan (Ker) 5.5, K. Praneeth Surya (AP) 5 lost to Girish Koushik (Kar) 5.5, V.R. Varman (TN) 4.5 lost to Sayantan Das (WB) 5.5, M.N. Shaikh (Mah) 5 drew with V. Varun (AP) 5, Shardul Gagare (Mah) 5.5 bt M. Siddarth (TN) 4.5, Mugil Jayavel (TN) 5 drew with Prince Bajaj (Del) 5, S. Kaushik (TN) 4.5 lost to Vignesh Nr (TN) 5.5, Rishi Sardhana (Del) 5 drew with Karthikeyan Murali (TN) 5.
Girls: P.V. Nandhidhaa (TN) 5 lost to Michelle Catherina (TN) 7, G. Lasya (AP) 5.5 drew with Nisha Patkar (Kar) 5.5, M. Mahalakshmi (TN) 5.5 drew with Meenu Priya (TN) 5.5, Shweta Gole (Mah) 4.5 lost to Madhurima Shekhar (Del) 5.5, Parnali Dharia (Mah) 4.5 lost to Srija Seshadri (TN) 5.5, V. Shvetha (TN) 4.5 lost to G.K. Monnisha (TN) 5.5, Sonakshi Rathore (Raj) 4.5 drew with Divya Lakshmi (TN) 5, Bala Kannamma (TN) 5 bt G. Aarthi (TN) 4, Mahasweta Kumar (Asm) 4.5 drew with Vaishnavi Akhade (Mah) 4.5, Vrushali Deodhar (Mah) 4 lost to N. Akshaya (TN) 5.
