Valay wrests lead with high five

In another interesting battle between under-14 champion Shradha Samani of Maharashtra and her teammate and under-12 champion Eesha Karvade, the former faced the Dutch Defence and used her chances well. Eesha8217;s central pawn push was too hasty and allowed Shradha to get a good bargain of two pieces and a pawn for a rook. She did not stop there and went on to net the Queen as well.

Topboard results

BOYS: Valay Parikh Guj 4.5 bt Sujeesh Ker 4; Somak Palit WB 4 drew with Yashpal Sonwani MP 4.5; RakeshAgarwal Bih 4 drew with Yambem Singh Mani 4; Aditya Vikram UP 3 lost to Omkar Patwardhan Mah 4; Saptarshi Roy GNCA 3.5 drew with Haribalu T Nagar 3.5; RS Prasanna TN 3.5 drew with R Siddharth Capa 3.5; MK Narasimhan T Nagar 4 bt Deepan Chakravarthy TN 3; Byomakesh Naik Ori 3.5 drew with Girija Kumar AP 3.5; V Srinivas Chromepet 3 lost to R Naveen Capa 4; Phoobalan TN 3.5 drew with Deep Sen Gupta Bih 3; Piyush Roy Ori 2.5 lost to Pubesh Anand TN 3.5.

Girls: Pratibha TN 4.5 bt P Priya T Nagar 4; Baisakhi Das WB 4.5 bt JE Kavitha TN 3.5; Shradha Samani Mah 4 bt Eesha Karvande Mah 3.5; Malarselvi TN 4 bt Priya Bihar 3; Amrutha Mokal Mah 3 lost to Kruthika Nadig Mah 4; Saheli Nath WB 4 bt Neenu A George Ker 3; Pooja Rashivedekar Kar 3 lost to Pannaga Magal Mah 4; Nimmy George Ker 4 bt Nilavoli TN 2.5; Mathuri Patel Mah 3.5 bt Ruha Karvande Mah 2.5; Aswathy Balagopal Ker 2.5 lost to K Preethi Capa 3.