Haryana ladtoo good for TN boys

Chennai, November 14: Tamil Nadu boys were left high and dry in the top board games on Tuesday. Top seed RR Laxman lost his way in the mid...

Chennai, November 14: Tamil Nadu boys were left high and dry in the top board games on Tuesday. Top seed RR Laxman lost his way in the middlegame and could not recover against Himanshu Sharma (Haryana) while defending champion Mahesh Chandran’s speculative bishop sacrifice backfired with Arghyadip Das (GNCA) and Prathamesh Mokal (Maharashtra) had little trouble in beating RS Prasanna in the fifth round of the Indian Oil Servo National under-18 chess championship at Ambedkar Auditorium, Avadi, here.

Going into the rest day on Wednesday, Himanshu, Arghaydip and Mokal nosed ahead with 4.5 points. JE Kavitha of TN wrested the lead in the girls section with 4.5 points. She defeated compatriot Y Pratibha arising from the French Tarrasch after 72 moves of pitched battle. Nabeela Farheen (TN), who was in joint lead on Monday, was in second place alongwith N Sandhya on four points after dropping half a point against Soumya Swaminathan (Mah).

Results (Round V): Boys: RR Laxman (TN) 3.5 lost to Himanshu Sharma (Har) 4.5; P Mahesh Chandran (TN) 3.5 lost to Arghyadip Das (GNCA) 4.5; Prathamesh Mokal (Mah) 4.5 bt RS Prasanna (TN) 3.5; Poobesh Anand (TN) 4 drew Sudhir K Sinha (Bih) 3.5; Rahul Sangma (Bih) 3 lost to Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) 4; Soumya Ranjan Mishra (Ori) 3.5 drew Ram S Krishnan (TN) 3.5; MR Venkatesh (ECC) 3.5 bt Praveenkumar (TN) 3; JM Utarid (Kar) 3.5 bt R Uttam Sharma (TN) 2.5; K Anbazhagan (Pdy) 2.5 lost to G Rohit (AP) 3.5; Tariq U Khan (UP) 2 lost to Preetham Sharma (TN) 3; Sachin Soni 2.5 drew Bharath Gupta (Raj) 2.5; R Siddharth (TN) 3 bt TU Navin Khanna (TN) 2; Nilabh Upadayay (WB) 2.5 drew Ramachandran (Kar) 2.5; Kukku Ramesh (Ker) 3 bt Raghuram Balaji (CCI) 2; Vijay Keerthi (Kar) 3 bt TS Pradeep (Kar) 2.

Girls: JE Kavitha (TN) 4.5 bt Y Pratibha (TN) 3.5; Nabeela Farheen (TN) 4 drew Soumya Swaminathan (Mah) 3.5; N Sandhya (Ker) 4 bt P Priya (ECC) 3; Baisakhi Das (WB) 2.5 lost to H Nilavoli (TN) 3.5; P Sumathi (TN) 2.5 lost to Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 3.5; Amruta S Mokal (VCA) 2.5 lost to CV Rajalakshmi (CCI) 3.5; M Kasturi (TN) 3 bt S Ramya (Pdy) 2.5; M Monogna (AP) 2 lost to P Malarselvi (TN) 3; B Uma Maheswari (TN) 2 lost to Prajeesha (Ker) 3; Anuprita Patil (Mah) 2.5 bt V Krithika (TN) 1.5; E Lakshmi (Kar) 2.5 bt P Uthra (TN) 1.5; BK Srivani (AP) 1.5 drew Priya (Bih) 1.5; P Sivasankari (TN) 2.5 bt Swethanarayan (Capa) 1; T Anusha (TN) 0 lost to J Megha (Kar) 2.5; Aneeqha Tahseen (TN) 1 drew PN Harini (TN) 1.5.