National U-15 Unheralded Narayan Chauhan holds IM Raja Rithvik to draw

National U-15 Unheralded Narayan Chauhan holds IM Raja Rithvik to draw

Thirty seven players in the Open section and twenty two players in the girls’ category are leading with two pints each at the end of the second round of the National Sub Junior Chess Championships, organised by Namakkal District Chess Foundation and Sivakasi Chess Club at KSR Educational Institutions, Tiruchengode today. Of the two top seeds, while the double time world champion Divya Deshmukh of Maharashtra pocketed a point in the girls’ section, Raja Rithvik of Telangana was held to a draw by Narayan Chauhan of Uttar Pradesh.

Raja Rithvik had a big advantage because of a weak tenth move by his opponent and the advantage grew to the winning status by 20^thmove. Raja’s sluggish rook move paved way for Narayan to use the big opportunity. He played with confidence in a rook and pawn ending to split the point. In the Sicilian defence by Swara Lakshmi S Nair of Karnataka, Divya held the upper hand throughout the game. After winning the exchange on 27^thmove, Divya had no difficulty in securing the point in 33 moves.

Under 13 national champion M Pranesh of Karaikudi was all set to win by move 33 against Soumyajit Das of West Bengal. But he had to wait for another 25 moves as his opponent did not give up the fight until he got checkmated. Similarly the defending champion Ajay Karthikeyan of Tamil Nadu obtained a superior position in the middle and won the opponent’s queen for his rook. Anyhow, he had to wait patiently until his opponent resigned.

Femil Chelladurai of Tamil Nadu mishandled the pieces in the centre against Nityata Jain, the second seed among the girls, from Madhya Pradesh and lost a bishop in the process. It took 47 moves for Nityata to win the game.

Games, standings and other details: www.u15nationalchess2019.in