Venkatesh snatches lead

Former world under-8 medallist Venkatesh scored a fine win over Mahesh Chandran, who was lying joint second with S Satyapragyan and TV Karthikeyan (TN) with 5.5 points each.

Aarthie beat Ch Kavitha (AP) to maintain her top position. JE Kavitha (TN) shocked the lone IWM in the fray Nisha Mohota (5) to climb to second with 5.5 points.

Venkatesh, playing black, adopted the Sicilian defence against Mahesh Chandran and after obtaining mobility in the centre, sacrificed an exchange on d3 for a Kingside attack. This forced white toreturn an exchange on the 46th move and gave Venkatesh the winning advantage.

Harikrishna overlooked an attack and allowed Satyapragyan to place his knight on f5. Hari, troubled by a Kingside attack, lost a piece on 45th move, and the game.

Asian sub-junior champion Aarthie convincingly broke down Kavitha’s King’s Indian Defence to win in 54 moves.

Girls top seed Maharashtra girl Swati Ghate (5 points), who beat Girija Rao (Rajasthan, 4), employed the Ruy Lopez opening to win the Schleeman defence game.

JE Kavitha (TN) upset Nisha in a Nimzo Indian defence game lasting 44 moves. Mansi Dadarkar (Mah) outplayed teammate Nivedita Sagade in 26 moves of Dutch defence.

RESULTS

Boys: P Mahesh Chandran (Tamil Nadu) 5.5 lost to MR Venkatesh (TN) 6, S Satyapragyan (Orissa) 5.5 bt P Harikrishna 5, MS Tej Kumar (Kar) 5 drew with S Roy Choudhary (WB) 5, Vikas Sharma (Pun) 4 lost to TV Karthikeyan (TN) 5.5, S Kidambi (TN) 5 bt Himanshu Sharma (Har) 4, Beenish Bhatia (AP) 5 bt CJ Arvind (TN) 4, ManishKumar (Bih) 4.5 drew with PS Mokal (Mah) 4.5, VR Kamble (Mah) 4 lost to S Rishipal Singh (AP) 5, Pramod N (Kar) 5 bt Valay Parikh (Guj) 3.5, Akash V Thakur (Mah) 3.5 lost to SV Jeet Singh (Mani) 4.5, Saurabh Soni (MP) 3.5 lost to Akashdeep (Har) 4.5, D Ravishankar (Mah) 4 drew with A Srivastava (Raj) 4, Prakash KP (Ker) 3.5 lost to RR Lakshman (TN) 3.5, Bharat Gupta (Raj) 3 lost to AP Singh (Pun) 4, R Naveen (TN) 3 lost to RS Kashelkar (Mah) 4, H Mishra (UP) 3 lost to Arjun (Mah) 4.

Girls: Ch Kavitha (AP) 4.5 lost to Aarthie Ramaswamy (TN) 6.5, Nisha Mohota (WB) 5 lost to JE Kavitha (TN) 5.5, Nivedita Sagade (Mah) 4.5 lost to Manasi Dadarkar (Mah) 5, Swati Ghate (Mah) 5 bt K Girija (Raj) 4, AA Kulkarni (Mah) 5 bt Koneru Humpy (AP) 4, ES Karavade (Mah) 4.5 drew with Neha Singh (Bih) 4.5, TT Laxmi Priya (TN) 3.5 lost to Y Prathiba (TN) 5 bt Srutha Keerthi (AP) 3.5 lost to MR Sangeetha (TN) 4.5, RS Karavade (Mah) 3.5 lost to Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 4.5, Mughda Arun (Mah) 4 bt PL Shivakami (TN) 3, ASMokal (Mah) 4 bt Azadeh P Patel (Guj) 3, Prijesha K (Ker) 3.5 drew with S Pradhan (Ori) 3.5, Aabha Thakur (Mah) 3 lost to Pooja Rathore (MP) 4, Parul Mohata (Raj) 4 bt Zeal Patel (Guj) 2.5, Srivalli Indrani (AP) 2.5 lost to Vaidehi Dave (Guj) 3.5, Preethi K (TN) 3 bt Sonam Shah (Guj) 2, B Shantha (TN) 2 lost to Sandhya N (Ker) 3, Anjana Jha (Del) 3 bt Kanika (Har) 2, KM Mohanty (Ori) 1.5 drew with M Bhavani (AP) 2.5, Jatinder Kaur (Chg) 2 bt Usha Upadhyay (Raj) 1, Dhyani Dave (Guj) 0 lost to Shweta (Chg) 2.