National U-17 Championship Begins

Sonipat: The 29th National Under-17 Open & Girls Chess Championships-2018” is currently being held at Gateway Education Campus, Sonipat, Haryana from September 3 to 11. The championship is being organized by Haryana Chess Association under the aegis of All India Chess Federation. About 200 players are in the fray, which carries a total cash prize of ₹2,50,000.

The top seeds for this year are West Bengal’s FM Mitrabha Guha and WFM Arpita Mukherjee in the Open and girls category respectively. The Open section has one FIDE Master, while the girls category features five Women FIDE Masters, and four women Candidate Masters.

Top-seed FM Mitrabha Guha (WB) is having a smooth run in the Open section. He has amassed 4.0/4 points to jointly share the lead with Paesar Vedant (MAH) and Vinay Thomas Abraham (KER) who also scored 4 points respectively.

Second round proved to be a shocker for third-seed Krishnater Kushager (MAH) when he went down to Soham Dey (WB). Whereas, second-seed Srijit Paul had to be content with a draw against lower rated Aditya Melani (GUJ).

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In the girls section, WFM Harishini A (TN) emerged sole leader after four rounds. Trailing behind by half-point are K Priyanka (TN) and WCM Jyothsna L (TN).

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Top-seed WFM Arpita Mukherjee started the championship on a high note after winning first and second rounds. However, Toshali V. (AP) put a pause on the winning streak and held Arpita to a draw. Followed by another draw against Srishti Pandey (MAH) in the fourth round.

The Fifth round is currently underway.

Pairings

Open: Round 5

Pairings

Girls: Round 5