Chess News

New Delhi (08 Sep 10) :-      International Master and local favourite Sahaj Grover was held to a draw by city mate Prince Bajaj in the seventh round of national Sub Juniors Chess championship now underway here.

Grover's half point drop proved a big gain for overnight joint leader Antonio Viani D'Cunha of Karnataka who shot in to sole lead defeating G Akash of Tamil Nadu.

Antonio took his tally to a commanding 6.5 points out of a possible seven, a half point clear of Grover and second seeded Girish Kaushik of Karnataka who defeated D S Shashank of Tamil Nadu.

With four rounds still to come in the championship a pack of nine players are sharing the third spot with 5.5 points apiece.

In the girls' championship being organized simultaneously P V Nadhidhaa of TN continued with her winning ways and outplayed B Pratuyusha of AP in a keenly contested game. With her fantastic seventh victory on the trot Nadhidhaa maintained a clean slate and extended her lead to a full point over nearest rivals Sonakshi Rathore of Rajasthan and Sunyasakta Satpathy of Orissa.

While the girls' championship seems to be heading in the favour of Nadhidhaa who seems unstoppable, the open event is still wide open according to experts.

Antonio Viani was the pick of the boys with his white pieces against Akash. Putting pressure in the middle game, Viani won a piece for little counter play and converted his extra material in to a full point without much ado.

Grover agreed to split the point with Bajaj from a French defense game. Playing black, Grover did not get any chance against rock solid play by Bajaj and the peace was signed in a mere 20 moves.

Round-7 (Open) :-  Prince Bajaj of Delhi (5.5) drew with Sahaj Grover of Delhi (6); Antonio Viani D'cunha of Karnataka (6.5) beat G Akash of Tamilandu (5); Girish A Koushik of Karnataka (6) beat Shashaank D S of Tamilnadu (5); Rishi Thariani of Delhi (5.5) drew with Shardul Gagare of Maharashtra (5.5); Diptyan Ghosh of West Bengal (5.5) drew with Sidhant Mohapatra of Orissa (5); Sayantan Das of West Bengal (5.5) beat Yogesh Gautam of Haryana (4.5); Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (5) drew with Narayanan S L of Kerala (5); Atharva Godbole of Maharashtra (4.5) lost to Mohammad Ashraf of Orissa (5.5); Nishvin J of Tamilnadu (5.5) beat Vignesh N R of Tamilnadu (4.5); Harsha Bharathakoti of Andhrapradesh (4.5) lost to Karthikeyan Murali of Tamilandu (5.5); Debarshi Mukherjee of West Bengal (5.5) beat Ram Gupta of Delhi (4.5); Tejas Ravichandran of Tamilnadu (5) drew with Debankan Dhara of West Bengal (5)

Round-7 (Girls) :-  Pratyusha Bodda of Andhrapradesh (5.5) lost to Nandhidhaa PV of Tamilnadu (7); Sonakshi Rathore of Rajasthan (6) beat Lasya G of Andhrapradesh (5); Sunyasakta Satpathy of Orissa (6) beat Nisha N Patkar of Karnataka (5); Akshaya N of Tamilnadu (5) drew with Anjana Krishna of Kerala (5); Bala Kannamma of Tamilnadu (5.5) beat Srija Seshadri of Tamilnadu (4.5); Priyanka Kumari of Jharkhand (4) lost to Arunima Kalra of Delhi (5.5); Salini R of Andhrapradesh (4) lost to Saranya J of Tamilnadu (5); Parnali S Dharia of Maharashtra (4) lost to Michelle Catherina of Tamilnadu (5); Hema Priya of Tamilnadu (5) beat Sohini Ganguly of West Bengal (4); Shweta Gole of Maharashtra (4.5) drew with Priya VSS of Andhrapradesh (4.5)