Mokal, Himanshu share lead

Y Pratibha (TN) was fortuitous after losing an exchange on the 32nd move, missing a knight fork with Sandhya (Kerala), who failed to increase the advantage and lost her way to concede defeat after 52 moves. Pratibha, Nabeela and CV Rajalakshmi (CCI) were half a point adrift of the leader.

Arghyadip Das could not recover after drifting into a difficult position, essaying a superfluous knight sacrifice on the 15th turn in the Sicilian Paulsen with Mokal. Mokal built his position making simple logical moves.

Arghaydip exchanged pieces to lessen the pressure but Mokal looked relentless and displayed correct technique today. The West Bengal boy reached a bad knight versus good bishop ending on the 32nd move hoping to salvage the lost cause. However, Mokal stopped the `f’ passer with his bishop and settled the issue with his `d’ passer. Himanshu Sharma understood Deepan Chakravarthy’s ploy and brought his bishop to defend the King-side.

Deepan got tempted and went for a dubious bishop sacrifice on the 17th move. Himanshu defended well but made a mistake on the 21st move putting the Queen on the wrong square. Deepan returned the compliment overlooking perpetual check which would have fetched him a draw. Poobesh Anand’s Himalayan blunder on the 55th move enabled RR Laxman to win from a dead drawn position.

Results (Round VI) Boys: Arghyadip Das (GNCA) 4.5 lost to Prathamesh Mokal (Mah) 5.5; Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) 4.5 lost to Himanshu Sharma (Har) 5.5; RR Laxman (TN) 4.5 bt Poobesh Anand (TN) 4; G Rohit (AP) 3.5 lost to MR Venkatesh (ECC) 4.5; RS Prasanna (TN) 3.5 lost to P Mahesh Chandran (TN) 4.5; Sudhir K Sinha (Bih) 3.5 lost to Soumya Ranjan Mishra (Ori) 4.5; Ram S Krishnan (Capa) 3.5 lost to JM Utarid (Kar) 4.5; Preetham Sharma (TN) 4 bt Kukku Ramesh (Ker) 3; Praveenkumar (TN) 4 bt Rahul Sangma (Bih) 3; R Siddharth (TN) 4 bt Vijay Keerthi(Kar) 3; Bharath Gupta (Raj) 3.5 bt Muthukumaran (T’Nagar) 3; Sachin Soni 2.5 lost to Pradip Ghosh (WB) 3.5; Ramachandran (Kar) 3 drew Anbazhagan (Pdy) 3; Ranvir S Bhatti (MP) 2.5 lost to MK Narasimhan (TN) 3.5; R Uttam Sharma (TN) 3.5 bt Ankit Srivatsav (Guj) 2.5.

Girls: Nabeela Farheen (TN) 4.5 drew JE Kavitha (TN) 5; Y Pratibha (TN) 4.5 bt N Sandhya (Ker) 4; Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 4 drew H Nilavoli (TN) 4; CV Rajalakshmi (TN) 4.5 bt Soumya Swaminathan (Mah) 3.5; P Priya (ECC) 3 lost to P Malarselvi (TN) 4; Prajeesha (Ker) 3 lost to M Kasturi (TN) 4; J Megha (Kar) 2.5 lost to Baisakhi Das (WB) 3.5; Anuprita Patil (Mah) 3.5 bt E Lakshmi (Kar) 2.5; S Ramya (Pdy) 2.5 lost to P Sumathi (TN) 3.5; Amruta S Mokal (VCA) 3.5 bt P Sivasankari (TN) 2.5; Priya (Bih) 2 lost to Uma Maheswari (TN) 3; PN Harini (TN) 2.5 bt M Monogna (AP) 2; P Uthra (TN) 2.5 bt V Krithika (TN) 1.5; Swethanarayan (Capa) 1.5 drew BK Srivani (AP) 2; Aneeqha Tahseen (TN) 2 bt T Anusha (TN) 0.