National Junior Championship-Mitrabha maintains lead

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At the end of the final double-round day of the 2019 National Junior Championship, IM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal managed to maintain  his lead.

In round 6 he faced FM Aaryan Varshney(2236) of Delhi.

It was a catalan defense which was fairly balanced throughout with both player playing quite solidly.The game eventually liquidated into a theoretically drawn endgame.

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In the second round of the day, Mitrabha faced IM Srijit Paul, also from West Bengal.

In a  theoretical and  positionally complex game arising out of the Caro-Kann defense , Mitrabha outplayed Srijit to score the full point.

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The 6th round face-off between Statemates IM Rajdeep Sarkar and  IM Koustav Chaterjee,both from West Bengal was an uneventful 30-move draw.

Round 6 also witnessed an impressive upset from Kumar Gaurav (2038) of Bihar who beat IM Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh.

In a Double Rook and Knight Vs Double Rook and Bishop endgame, Anuj, playing black made a serious error which cost him a pawn and the game.

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Despite an impressive victory in the 6th round, Kumar was convincingly beaten by FM Aaryan Varshney in the afternoon.

Kumar,playing Black misplayed an IQP Position and Aaryan managed to capitalize on Black’s inaccuracies to score a victory.

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At the end of 7 rounds,  IM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal (6.5) has maintained his half point lead and is being trailed closely by IM Kaustav Chaterjee and FM Aaryan Varshney with 6 points each.

Rank after Round 7 (Top 10 Players)

Girls Category

The top seed of the event, WIM Priyanka Nuttaki of Andhra Pradesh had a bad day scoring only 0.5/2 .In round 6, playing with the White pieces against statemate Toshali V (2057), Priyanka played accurately to gain an advantage but could not convert it into a full point and had to settle for a draw.

Round 7 witnessed an interesting encounter between top seed of the event ,WIM Priyanka Nuttaki of Andhra Pradesh and Priyanka K of Tamil Nadu.

Priyanka, playing with the black pieces went wrong in the middlegame allowing her opponent to gain access to an important central file which she exploited well to win 3 pawns after which Black had no chances to make a comeback.

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Second seed WIM Arpita Mukherjee of West Bengal had a great day as she won both her games.

Other impressive performances of the day cam in the form of Shrishti Pandey’s 2/2 and Bommini Akshaya’s 1.5/2.

At the end of of 7 rounds,there’s a four-way tie, between WFM Bommini Mounika Akshaya, WIM Arpita Mukherjee, WFM Shrishti Pandey and Priyanka K with 6 points each.

Rank after Round 7 (Top 10 Boards)