Kavitha grabs lead; Himanshu topples Laxman

Top seed Baisakhi Das’ hopes of making a dent at the title receded further. She suffered a reverse at the hands of upcoming Nilavoli Hariharan (TN) after achieving an equal position in the middlegame. Nilavoli won Baisakhi’s Queen with simple tactics.

For the second day Himanshu achieved a winning position to nearly blow it up against Laxman. His mistake in the 44th move g5 (44. Rf3 was winning) stretched the game. He was forced to give his rook for knight. However, his bishop and Laxman’s fragile pawns ensured victory after 76 moves.

Mahesh’s bishop sacrifice on the 27th move in the Sicilian Najdorf with Argyadip looked far-fetched after the game. The Bengal boy, who sparkled in the National `B’ recently, defended astutely, bringing his knight and Queen to correct squares and giving way to his King which marched from g8 to a7! It was a safe haven for the monarch. Mahesh gave it up on move 40 with no possibility of making up for his piece sacrifice.

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.