Kozhikode, Jan 30: Eighteen-year-old Pallavi Shah of Maharashtra won the 12th National Junior girls chess title comfortably here today. Pallavi's eighth round victory with black pieces over Chitra Sridhar of Karnataka ended the competition for title in the girls section with a round to spare. Pallavi has 7.5 points from eight rounds and can afford to lose her last round game tomorrow against Pratibha of GSWCA.Meenakshi Subburaman of TN is the next in the list with 6.5 points and the rest even further behind.Pallavi kept the bishop pair in the Sicilian Defence and reduced the position to a bishop versus knight ending in which Chitra lost two pawns in 52 moves.Meenakshi outwitted Manasi Dadarkar of Maharashtra in 33 moves of Nimzo-Indian Defence while a fighting Swati Mohota of West Bengal held Ananya Sarkar of GNCA to a draw in 58 moves of Caro-Kann Defence in a Queen and pawn ending.At the same time, the boys championship was thrown open after the eighth round results which left topseedK.Sasikiran, second seed R.Karthik (both TN) and P.Harikrishna (AP) on level terms at 6.5 points each. Sasikiran will meet Harikrishna in the last round while Karthik clashes with S. Kidambi (TN) on six points.Sasikiran and Kidambi played a 19-move draw by repetition of moves in the Grunfeld Defence. Karthik sacrificed a piece for a pawn and then dictated the terms against Prathamesh Mokal of Maharashtra before winning in 24 moves in a Sicilian Paulsen variation.Harikrishna scored a 33-move win in Pirc Defence against S.Satyakam. Third seed Tejas Bakre of Indian Airlines fell out of the race when he bowed to K Ramu of AP in 41 moves of Sicilian Defence.RESULTS (8th round)Boys: S Kidambi (TN) 6 drew with K Sasikiran (TN) 6.5; R Karthik (TN) 6.5 bt P Mokal (Mah) 5.5; S Satyakam (Ori) 5.5 lost to P Harikrishna (AP) 6.5; Tejas Bakre (IA) 5 lost to K Ramu (AP) 6; G Vinod (T.Nagar) 4.5 lost to V Kamble (Mah) 6; MR Venkatesh (TN) 5.5 bt CJ Arvind(TN) 4.5; K Ratnakaran (Ker) 5.5 bt S Kutwal (Mah)4.5; Rishipal Singh (AP) 5 drew with AVK Venkat (TN) 5; Syed Anwar Shazuli (TN) 5 bt Ramkrishnan (T Nagar) 4; R Kashelkar (Mah) 4 lost to Preetham Sharma (T Nagar) 5; A Bhivgade (MP) 4 lost to R Pulekar (Mah) 5; S Kherdekar (Mah) 5 bt BP Gupta (Raj) 4; Lakshminarayanan (Ker) 4.5 bt S Banerjee (Mah) 4; Sajesh G (Ker) 3.5 lost to Manthan Chokshi (Guj) 4.5.Girls: Chitra Sridhar (Kar) 5 lost to Pallavi Shah (Mah) 7.5; Ananya Sarkar (GNCA) 5.5 drew with Swati Mohota (WB) 5.5; Meenakshi (TN) 6.5 bt Manasi Dadarkar (Mah) 5.5; Abha Thakur (Mah) 4.5 lost to Pratibha Y (GSWCA) 6; Ashwini Kulkarni (Mah) 4.5 lost to Sasinas Haritha (Ker) 5.5; PL Sivakami (TN) 4.5 drew with Ashwini Puchapurkar (Mah) 5; Nisha Mohota (WB) 5 bt S Cynthia (TN) 4; K Charanya (T Nagar) 4 lost to S Sujatha (TN) 5; Baisaki Das (WB) 4.5 drew with Monalisa Malakar (WB) 4.5; Kavitha C (AP) 5 bt Nazia Nona (Ker) 3.5; Sanitha Sathyan (Ker) 3.5 lost to Preeti Bisoi (Ori) 4.5.
