Mumbai, December 15: The three-way ties amongst Saptarshi Roy (GNCA), M R Venkatesh and Deepan Chakravarthy (both from Tamil Nadu) with an identical score of 6.5 points each in boys and joint leadership in girls between Anuradha B (Har) and Eesha Karwade (Mah) with a score of seven points each at end of the eighth and penultimate round have left the championships wide open in the IPCL national sub-junior (under-15) chess championship here today. In the boys section, playing on the first table with white pieces, yesterday's leader Saptarshi opened the game with king-pawn against which Y Sonwani of Madhya Pradesh opted for Sicilian Defence. In the middle game, Saptarshi won a pawn and commanded the board, but later he mishandled the situation to allow to escape his opponent with a draw. While on second table, top seeded Venkatesh had gained superior position in the opening from the Pelikan variation of Sicilian Defence of S Poobesh Anand (TN). On the 25th move Venkatesh won a pawn and brought home the advantage to score a full point after 49 moves. Now the leaders - Saptarshi, Venkatesh and Deepan with 6.5 points each, are being chased by Sonwani, R.Siddarth (CAPA), R S Prasanna (TN), Arghya Das and Somak Palit (both from GNCA) with six points each. In the girls section, playing on the top table with white pieces Anuradha had a lucky escape against R.Mahima of Tamil Nadu in the Sicilian-Pelikan Defence game. In the middle game Mahima had snatched a strong initiative and developed good position, but, poor play in the late-middle game brought her opponent back into the game to clinch the issue. In the girls also, the leaders - Anuradha and Eesha have seven points each, being closely followed by as many as eight players - R.Mahima, Tanya Sachdeva (Del), Amruta Mokal (Mah), N.Priya Darshani (TN), Baisakhi Das (WB), C.Delphin (TN), Krutika Nadig (Mah) and Soumya Swaminathan (Mah) with a score of 5.5 points each.Important results:Boys: Saptarshi Roy (GNGA) (6.5) drew with Y.Sonwani (MP) (6); M.R.Venkatesh (TN) (6.5) bt S. Poobesh Anand (TN) (5.5); R.Siddrth (CAPA) (6) drew with R.S. Presanna (TN) (6); Arjun Tiwari (Mah) (5) lost to Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) (6.5); Ranvir Bhatti (Chat) (5) lost to Arghya Das (GNCA) (6); Vaibba Sazena (Mah) (5.5) drew with Rahul Sangma (Bih) (5.5); Somak Palit (GNCA) (6) bt G.Rohit (AP) (5); P Maheshwaran (TN) (5.5) drew with Kartik V. (Mah) (5.5).girls: anuradha B (Har) (7) bt R.Mahima (TN) (5.5); Tanya Sachdeva (Del) (5.5) lost to Esha Karwade (Mah) (7); Amruta Mokal (Mah) (5.5) drew with M.Priya Darshani (TN) (5.5); D Barika (AP) (4.5) lost to Baisakhi Das (WB) (5.5); Supriya Majee (WB) (4.5) lost to C.Delphin (TN) (5.5); Krutika N Adig (Mah) (5.5) bt Aparna Dhatrak (Mah) (4.5); Ketki Kulkarni (Mah) (5) drew with P.Priya (TN) (5); Soumya Swaminathan (Mah) (5.5) bt M.Rajdarshani (EMM) (4.5).
