West Bengal’s Diptayan Ghosh and Goa’s Harikrishnan Mohanan played out a draw in the ninth round but it did not stop the former from taking the sole lead in the Edurite co-sponsored National under-9 chess championship at the St Joseph’s Composite Pre-university College here on Wednesday.

Diptayan was on eight points, while three players — Sidhant Mohapatra (Orissa), Adarsh P Yeshwanth (TN) and Aswath P Hari (Tamil Nadu) — shared the second spot with 7.5 points each.

The boys top board saw a fine battle between top-seeded Diptayan and Harikrishnan. The game arose out of a Queen’s Gambit declined variation. The players agreed for a draw in a drawn knight ending position.

In the girls section, Tamil Nadu’s Monnisha GK and Gujarat’s Sweety Patel were in the lead with 7.5 points each after hte ninth round.

Results:

Boys: Ninth round: Diptayan Ghosh (WB, 8) drew Harikrishnan Mohanan (Goa, 7); Sidhant Mohapatra (Ori, 7.5) bt Mohineesh CH (AP, 7); Manu M (Ker, 7) drew Athul Krishna S (Ker, 7); Adharsh P Yeshwanth (TN, 7.5) bt Samyak Baid (Mah, 6.5); Aswath P Hari (TN, 7.5) bt Harshal Shahi (Del, 6.5); Satvik M (Kar, 7) bt Aravindh Chithambaram (TN, 6); Arjun Bharat (Kar, 7) bt Chinmay Routray (Ori, 6); Sayan Majumdar (WB, 6) lt to Hetul Shah (Guj, 7); Maniar Tirth (Guj, 6.5) drew GV Revanth Reddy (AP, 6.5); Jayesh M (TN, 6) lt to Saradhara Preet (Guj, 7).
Eighth round: Athul Krishna S (Ker, 6.5) lt to Diptayan Ghosh (WB, 7.5); Harikrishnan Mohanan (Goa, 6.5) drew Sidhant Mohapatra (Ori, 6.5); Mohineesh CH (AP, 7) bt Sayan Majumdar (WB, 6); Harshal Shahi (Del, 6.5) drew Satvik M (Kar, 6); Bharadwaj Akshay (Kar, 5.5) lt to Adharsh P Yeshwanth (TN, 6.5); Hemanth Kumar P (AP, 5.5) lt to Aswath P Hari (TN, 6.5); Adarsh Shrivastava (UP, 5.5) lt to Manu M (Ker, 6.5); Samyak Baid (Mah, 6.5) bt Shaikh Nubairshah (Mah, 5); Dhonnar Nachiket (Mah, 5) lt to Arjun Bharat (Kar, 6); Hetul Shah (Guj, 6) bt Krishna Teja N (AP, 5).

Girls: Round nine: Monnisha GK (TN, 7.5) bt Mahalakshmi M (TN, 7); Sweety Patel (Guj, 7.5) bt Ivana Maria Furtado (Goa, 6.5); Shoumi Mukherjee (WB, 7) drew Megha Gupta (Guj, 6.5); Nandhini TR (TN, 6) lt to Abirami R (TN, 7); Dharani Sree R (TN, 6) lt to Sunyasakta Satpathy (Ori, 7); Meghana TC (Kar, 6) drew Ashwini U (TN, 6); Akankhya Kabi (Ori, 6) drew Savant Riya (Goa, 6); Rutuja Bakshi (Mah, 6.5) bt Varsha CK (TN, 5); Meghna CH (Ker, 6) bt Smaraki Mohanty (Ori, 5.5); Andria L D'Souza (Kar, 6) bt Tejaswini Sagar (Mah, 5).
Eighth round: Ivana MF (Goa, 6.5) drew Shoumi (WB, 6.5); Mahalakshmi (TN, 7) bt Dharani SR (TN, 6); Smaraki M (Ori, 5.5) lt to Sweety P (Guj, 6.5); Ashwini (TN, 5.5) lt to Monnisha (TN, 6.5); Megha G (Guj, 6) bt Meghna CH (Ker, 5); Abirami R (TN, 6) bt Tulsi M (Kar, 5); Nandhini TR (TN, 6) bt Andria (Kar, 5); Sunyasakta (Ori, 6) bt Divya (Mah, 5); Prakruthi (TN, 5) lt to Akankhya (Ori, 5.5); Sana (Mah, 4.5) lt to Bakshi (Mah, 5.5).