Narayanan back in sole lead

New Delhi: Grandmaster S L Narayanan defeated Rajdeep Sarkar in the penultimate round to take sole lead in the Asian Junior Chess Championship here at Park Plazaon Tuesday.

Playing white in Semi-Slav game, Narayanan exploited the opening mistake committed by his rival to gain an exchange up and later sealed the match in 36 moves. Other overnight joint leaders Grandmaster Karthikeyan Murali and Iranian International Master Mousavi Seyed Khalil signed the peace treaty in 31 moves. Top seed Aravindh Chithamabaram defeated Arjun Kalyan.

Aravindh along with Karthikeyan, Mousavi and Nima Javanbakht of Iran, who defeated Sammed Jaykumar Shete are at number two spot with 6 points. In final round tomorrow morning, Narayanan takes on Mousavi while Aravindh and Karthikeyan paired against Javanbakht and Rajdeep Sarkar respectively.

Important Results (Indian otherwise stated) :-

Open Round 8:Karthikeyan Murali (6) drew Mousavi Seyed Khalil of Iran (6); SL Narayanan (6.5) bt Rajdeep Sarkar (5.5); Arjun Kalayan (5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (6); Nima Javanbakht of Iran (6) bt Sammed Jaykumar Shete (5); Mosadeghpour Masoud (5.5) bt Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (4.5); Shailesh Dravid (4.5) lost to Harsha Bharathakoti (5.5); Rahul Srivatshav P (5) drew Srijit Paul (5); Rakesh Kumar Jena (5) drew Rakesh Kumar Nayak (5); Ankit Gajwa (5) bt Ganesh R (4); Isakzhanov Kelsinbek of Kyrgyzstan (4.5) drew Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad (4.5);
Girls: Ivana Maria Furtado (5.5) drew Vaishali R (6); Chandreyee Hajra (5.5) lost to Priyanka K (6); Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh of Mongolia (6) bt Bala Kannamma P (5); Varshini V (4.5) lost to Harshita Guddanti (5.5); Shweta Gole (4.5) lost to Nandhidhaa P V (5.5); Hamedi Nia Vesal of Iran (5) drew Priyanka Nutakki (5); Sunyuktha CMN (5) drew Michelle Catherina (4.5); Sakshi Chitlange (5) bt Akshya Nandakumar (4); Shanya Mishra (5) bt Divya Lakshmi R (4); Ananya Suresh (5) bt Sanskriti Goyal (4).