PTI

Shalmali emerges sole leader after sixth round

Fri, Nov 6 09:36 PM

Mumbai, Nov 6 (PTI) Maharashtra''s Shalmali Gagare emerged the sole leader in the women''s group with 5.5 points at the end of the sixth round of U-15 Sub-Junior Chess Championship at the Andheri Sports Complex here today. IM Vidit Gujrathi, FM Prasanna Rao, IM Narayanan Shrinath and S Kaushik jointly lead the boys'' group with 5.5 points.

On the top board, yesterday''s leader FM Girish Kaushik (2246) of Karnataka, playing with white pieces, lost to second seed IM Shrikanth Narayanan (ELO 2331) of Tamil Nadu. Girish opted for Trompowsky attack.

On 17th move he made the mistake of playing his bishop to d3 instead of b5. On the 21st move, Girish lost his knight and resigned in 24 moves.

On the second board, top seed IM Vidit Gujrathi (ELO 2459) of Maharashtra beat Tejas Ravichandran (ELO 2203) of Tamil Nadu. With white pieces, Vidit opted for Catalan opening and offered a pawn on the sixth move but made a recovery on the 13th.

Later he attacked and exposed Tejas'' king. Tejas accepted his defeat in 27 moves.

In the girl''s category, top seed Shalmali playing against U-17 national Champion J Saranya (ELO 2146) of Tamil Nadu opted for English opening. Saranya replied with King''s Indian Defense.

On the 22nd move, Saranya allowed Shalmalis Knight to enter into the center, thus giving a huge advantage. On the 30th move, Saranya surrendered her point to Shalmali.

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