Venkatesh emerges sole leader

Three players, R Navin Tamil Nadu, Gilford T Meghalaya and Kartik Vishwanathan Maharashtra were in the third spot with 4.5 points each.

In the girls under-14 category, C Delphin of Tamil Nadu was the sole leader with 5.5 points after the sixth round, while local girl Vaisakhi Das was behind her with five points.

Sarda Samani Maha, P Malar Selvi TN, T Aravinda Nochani AP and P Magal Maha were the four players who were jointly in third position.

R Siddharth of Tamil Nadu and Sunil Rangarajan of Karnataka led the field in the boys under-12 section with 5.5 points each. Sayantan Dutta Ben, J Deepan Chakravarthy TN, Rahul Sangma Bihar, Ravindrarajan Ben and Akshat Rhamparia MP were in the second position with five points each.