Rajdeep maintains top status

Rajdeep Sarkar of West Bengal maintained his lead by scoring perfect 5 points at the end of the fifth round of the 26th National U-17 Open and and Girls’ chess championship here on Tuesday. 

Pranavananda V of AP was placed second with 4.5 points while eight players -- Karthik V and Krishna Teja of AP; Vaishali R, Kumaran B, Jaykumaar S and Al Muthaah of Tamil Nadu and Athul Krishnan of Kerala -- occupied the third spot with 4 points each.

Shailesh Dravid (2238) of Maharastra and FM Sarkar (2233) played out Ruy Lopez opening on the top board. Dravid resigned after the 49th move when Sarkar’s unstoppable pawn marched towards promotion.

Pranavananda (2174) and Harikrishna (2166) of Tamil Nadu played out Queen Gambit declined variation on the third board. Equal middle game turned into Bishop versus Knight ending. Pranavananda managed to promote his pawn even as Harikrishna resigned after 69 moves.

Dhananjay (2187) of Chhattisgarh and Karthik V (2264) of AP agreed for draw in the 23rd move on the second board.

In the girls’ section, the Tamil Nadu duo of Varshini V and Mahalakshmi maintained the lead after they drew their top board game to tie for the lead with 4.5 points each. In a Slav defence game, they agreed for a draw on the 77th move.

Vantika Agrawal of Delhi, Priyanka Nutakki, Toshali V, Potluri Supreetha of AP, Potluri Saye Srreezza and Ankitha Goud Palle of Telangana and Vaibhavi Jadhav of Maharastra are in second spot with 4 points each.

Important results: Open category: Shailesh Dravid (Mah, 3.5) lost to Rajdeep Sarkar (Bengal, 5); Dhananjay (Chatt, 4) drew with Karthik V (AP, 4); Pranavananda (AP, 4.5) bt Harikrishnan A R (TN, 3.5); Muthaiah (TN, 4) bt E Arjun (AP, 3.5); Vaishali R (TN, 4) bt Barath Kalyan M (TN, 3); Vaishnav M (TN, 3) lost to Krishna Teja N (AP, 4); Ojas Kulkarni (Kar, 3) drew with Sai Viswesh C (TN, 3).

Girls: Varshini V (TN, 4.5) drew with Mahalakshmi M (TN, 4.5); Vantika Agarwal (Del, 3) drew with Priyanka Nutakki (AP, 3); Toshali V (AP, 4) bt Isha Sharma (Kar, 3.5); Prabhugaonkar Aditee Aman (Goa, 3.5) drew with Ananya Suresh (Kar, 3.5), Divyalakshmi R (TN, 3) lost to P Supreetha (AP, 4); Shah Rutvi (Guj, 3) lost to P Sayi Sreeza (Tel, 4); Ankitha Goud P (Tel 4) bt Varsha C R (TN, 3); Jadav Vaibhavi (Mah, 4) bt Sapale Saloni (Mah, 2.5); Dhanashree Pandit (Mah, 3) drew with Shah Vishwa (Mah, 3); Abirama Srinithi (TN, 3.5) bt Thamaraiselvi (TN, 2.5)