Nikil beats Yusup

In the under-18 Open section, Nikil displayed sheer class to beat Yusup in a game that lasted 116 moves. Meanwhile, top-seeded Grandmaster Salem AR Saleh of the UAE settled for a draw after 93 moves against Iranian Porramezanali Amirreza. Shyam and Salem are now leading the table in this section with five points, closely followed by Debashish Das who is half a point behind.

In the girls’ section, Bhakti Kulkarni and Nakhbayeva Guliskhan of Kazakhstan are leading the table with five points. In the girls’ under-8 category, four Indian girls -- Arpita Mukherjee, Khushi Dharewa, Tarini Goyal and Nithya Pallempati -- are occupying the pole position with 4.5 points.

In the under-16 Open section, Nguyen Van Hai of Vietnam and Atabayev Maksat are giving Priyadharshan company at the top with 5.5 points, while Vietnamese Girls  Vo Thi Kim Phung and Hoang Thi Nhu are leading in the girls’ section.

In the under-14 Open category, GV Sai Krishna overcame team-mate and fancied rival Sahaj Grover in the seventh round and shares the top spot with 5.5 points with Idani Pouya of Iran. J Saranya and Khademalsharieh Sarasadat of Iran are leading in the girls’ section.

Diptayan Ghosh, Sayantan Das and Artmenko Oleg of Uzbekistan are in the lead in under-12 Open section, while in the girls’ section, Srija Seshadri and G K Monnisha are occupying the top spot.

Ivana Maria Furtado (girls’ under-10) and Mitrabha Guha (Open under-8) are the other Indian leaders.