Priyanka Emerges Clear Leader – By Arvind Aaron
Nutakki Priyanka of Vijayawada is in sole lead with full five points in the National Under-13 Girls Chess Championship that is taking place at Gurgaon in Haryana.
In the Open section, three players share the lead and surprisingly, the top two seeds, P Iniyan and Saurabh Anand suffered defeats on Wednesday morning. Being a double round day, they can make a comeback as six rounds remain to be played. The leaders are fifth seed Neelash Saha (WB), Bharambe Bhavik (Mah) and Rahul Srivatshav (Tel) on full five points.
In the joint second spot on 4.5 points are Sadhu S Adithya (TN), R Dileep Kumar (TN), Aansh Gupta (Del) and R Prajesh (TN).
Saina Salonika of Odisha is in clear second place with 4.5 points behind leader N Priyanka, 5. A large group of 13 girls are in the third spot with four points.

CHESS IN SCHOOLS BOOK
28th Asian Youth Chess Championships – 2026 in Shenzhen, China from 15th to 25th July 2026
FIDE World Cadets Cup – 2026 in Batumi, Georgia from 15th to 28th June, 2026
Certificates of SNA Seminar & Exam in Ahmedabad on 02 & 03 Jan 2026
Commonwealth Chess Championship – 2026 – 27 in Kaluthara, Sri Lanka from 16th to 26th May, 2026.