In Friday’s tenth round, Karthikeyan stunned top seed Diptayan Ghosh of West Bengal to move into the sole lead with 8.5 points, half-a-point ahead of Bengal boy Debankan Dhara and Maharashtra’s Samyak Baid.
Ivana, who needs only a draw in the final round on Saturday, stayed the lone leader in the girls’ section with nine points after edging out Ashwini U of Tamil Nadu in 67 moves.
Important results (round ten):
Boys: Debankan Dhara (WB, 8) drew Samyak Baid (Mah, 8); Diptayan Ghosh (WB, 7) lt to Karthikeyan Murali (TN, 8.5); Aditya Hiren Vaidya (Guj, 7.5) drew Sidhant Mohapatra (Ori, 7.5); Sayan Majumdar (WB, 7) lt to Shaikh Nubairshah (Mah, 8); Rakesh Kumar Jena (Ori, 7) lt to Naik Rishubh Naresh (Goa, 8); R V Adith (TN, 7.5) bt Bharadwaj Akshay (Kar, 6.5);
Anshuman K (TN, 7.5) bt Sunil Dev S (Pud, 6.5); Krishna Teja N (AP, 7) drew Hetul Shah (Guj, 6.5); Arjun Bharat (Kar, 6.5) drew Chinmay Routray (Ori, 6.5); Narayanan SL (Ker, 6) lt to Pavan Karande (Mah, 7).
Hemanth Kumar (AP, 6) lt to Pranav Vijay (TN, 7); Kumaran B (TN, 6) lt to Aravindh Chithambaram (TN, 7); Maniar Tirth (Guj, 6) lt to Poras Sanjay Kolgane (Mah, 7); Varma Shabdhik (Kar, 7) bt Shivam Chandak (Guj, 6); Vishal G (TN, 6) lt to Rohan Ahuja (Goa, 7); Vivekraj (Kar, 6) lt to Naren Swaminathan P (TN, 7); Satvik M (Kr, 6.5) bt Badrinath S (Pud, 5.5).
Girls: Ashwini U (TN, 7) lt to Ivana Maria Furtado (Goa, 9); Akankhya Kabi (Ori, 6.5) lt to Sunyasakta Satpathy (Ori, 8); Monnisha GK (TN, 8) bt Meghna CH (Ker, 6.5); Andria L D’Souza (Kar, 6.5) lt to Mahalakshmi M (TN, 7.5).
Priyanka S (AP, 7) bt Varsha CK (TN, 6.5); Shoumi Mukerjee (WB, 7) bt Salini R (AP, 6); Gauri Keshav Hadkonkar (Goa, 6.5) drew Megha Gupta (Guj, 6.5); Rakshana K (TN, 6) lt to Bakshi Rutuja (Mah, 7); Dhanashree Pandit (Mah, 6) lt to Meghana TC (Kar, 7).
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks