S L Narayanan and Vaishali in sole lead

S L Narayanan and Vaishali in sole lead
By MS Gopakumar

New Delhi (06 May 16) :-  Third seed Kerala based Grandmaster S L Narayanan defeated counterpart Karthikeyan Murali and World Under-14 Girls Champion R Vaishali defeated team mate K Priyanka to take sole lead in their respective categories with perfect score after fourth round matches of the ongoing Asian Junior Chess Championship here at Hotel Park Plaza on Friday.

Playing a solid game with black pieces in Najdorf variation of Sicilian defence, Narayanan gained a pawn on twenty third move to exert pressure on queen side of his second seed rival and sensing inevitable result, Karthikeyan resigned after forty three moves.

Meanwhile in the girl’s section, Vaishali faced tough resistance from her country mate rival but she managed her passed pawn to good effect to gain a piece up in fifty ninth move to seal the match in 80 moves arrived out of Scotch four knight game.

In other important encounters in the open section, top seed Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram defeated International Master Chakkravarthi Reddy while Iranian International Master Mosadeghpour Masoud outwitted Pranavanda V to occupy joint second spot with a drift of half point from the leader. Crucial fifth round matches will be played tomorrow afternoon and Naryanan paired against Masoud while Aravindh will face Karthikeyan.

In Girls section, Women International Master Nandhidhaa  P V in sole second spot with three and half points after defeating Hamedi Nia Vesal of Iran and she will face the leader with black pieces tomorrow.
Earlier in the third round, top seed Aravindh signed the peace treaty with Masoud while Narayanan and Kartikeyan Murali overcame Rahul Srivartshav and Harsha Baharathkoti respectively.

Aravindh Chithambaram drew with Mosadeghpour Masoud; Harsha Bharathakoti lost to Karthikeyan Murali; S L Narayanan beat Rahul Srivatshav;

Important Results (Indian otherwise stated) :-
Open Round-4 :-  GM Karthikeyan Murali (3) lost to GM SL Narayanan (4); IM Chakravarthi Reddy (2.5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (3.5); IM Mosadeghpour Masoud (3.5) beat Pranavananda V (2.5); FM Rajdeep Sarkar (3) drew with IM Mousavi Seyed Khalil of Iran (3); Arjun Kalyan (3) beat FM Harshal Shahi (2.5); FM Nima Javanbakht of Iran (3) beat Rakesh Kumar Nayak (2); Atharva Godbole (2.5) drew with FM Karthik V(2.5); FM Rakesh Kumar Jena (3) beat Harsha Bharathakoti (2); Rahul Srivatshav P (3) beat Kumar Gaurav (2); FM Ankit Gajwa (2.5) drew with Saurabh Anand (2.5).

Open Round-3 :-  Aravindh Chithambaram drew with Mosadeghpour Masoud; Harsha Bharathakoti lost to Karthikeyan Murali; S L Narayanan beat Rahul Srivatshav; Pranavananda V drew with Ankit Gajwa; Mousavi Seyed Khalil beat Shailesh Dravid; Kumar Gaurav drew with Nima Javanbakht; Karthik V drew with Rakesh Kumar Jena; Utkal Ranjan Sahoo lost to Harshal Shahi; Bijaya Dangol lost to Chakkravarthi Reddy; Arijith M lostt o Rajdeep Sarkar.

Girls Round-4 :-  Priyanka K (3) lost to WFM Vaishali R (4); WFM Varshini V (3) drew with WIM Sakshi Chitlange (3); Hamedi Nia Vesal of Iran (2.5) lost to WIM Nandhidhaa P V (3.5); Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh of Mongolia (3) beat Priyanka Nutakki (2); WIM Ivana Maria Furtado (3) beat Divya Lakshmi R (2); WCM Ananya Suresh (2.5) drew with Harshita Guddanti (2.5); Bala Kannamma P (3) beat Shweta Gole (2); Akshaya Nandakumar (3) beat WCM Saloni Sapale (2); WFM Bidhar Rutumbara (2) lost to WCM Chandreyee Hajra (3); Maya Yalknova of Turkmenistan (1.5) lost to WIM Michelle Catherina (2.5).

Girls Round-3 :-  Vaishali R beat Divya Lakshmi; Sakshi Chitlange drew with Hamedi Nia Vesal; Shweta Gole lost to Priyanka K; Isha Sharma lost to Varshini V; Nandhidhaa P V beat Tarini Goyal; Priyanka Nutakki drew with Bala Kannamma P; Saloni Sapale drew with Bidhar Rutumbara; Michelle Catherina drew with Ananya Suresh; Priyamvada Karamcheti lost to Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh; Sanskriti Goyal lost to Ivana Maria Furtado.