Maheshchandran and Prathiba close in on title

By Manuel Aaron

JAMSHEDPUR, APRIL 13. Tamil Nadu is assured of both titles in the 10th National under-18 boys & girls' chess championships now held at the United Club here.

At the end of the eighth and penultimate round, P. Maheshchandran (Ramalinga) is leading by a whole point in the boys' section. He is followed by a group of four players. Only one among them, Sundararajan Kidambi, has a better tie-break score than Maheshchandran. If Kidambi wins in the last round against Pranjal Das of West Bengal and Mahesh loses against Abhishek Srivastava of Rajasthan, the title will go to Kidambi. In all other scenarios Mahesh becomes the champion.

In the girls' section Y. Prathiba of Tamil Nadu leads with 6.5 points. Half a point behind her is her State-mate J.E. Kavitha. And the last round pairing is J.E.Kavitha vs Y. Prathiba. The winner of this match will be the champion.

In today's games the most exciting were on the top boards. In the boys' section, Maheshchandran played the black side of a Ruy Lopez against Maharashtra's Prathamesh Mokal with great patience and masterly middle-game understanding. Around the 40th move the game was level though white had planted a knight on the e6 square. On the 43rd move Mokal momentarily let his guard down which allowed Mahesh to pounce on him with great ferocity. Offering a rook he smashed into white's castled position and emerged with a knight and bishop for white's rook. Mokal exchanged queens, but the black minor pieces cleverly shepherded one of two passed pawns to the eighth rank and forced resignation on the 60th turn.

On the second table, Sundararajan Kidambi missed many chances of gaining an advantage against J.M. Utarid of Karnataka and eventually settled for a draw in a rook ending.

In the girls' top table, Y. Prathiba had a terrible time overcoming M. Priyadarshini, also of Tamil Nadu. Priyadarshini missed several good opportunities of both winning and drawing and ultimately reached an ending where she had a rook for Prathiba's bishop and four pawns. She was able to capture two of them, but the other two pawns gave Prathiba a full point. Priyadarshini played till mate on the 91st move and left the hall weeping. On the second table J.E. Kavitha had a beautiful victory over top- seed Baisakhi Das of West Bengal. She regularly offered some material or the other for attack and eventually mated the black king.

lLeading points position:

Boys: 1. P. Maheshchandran 7; 2-5. Kidambi, Valay Parikh, P. Mokal, A. Srivastava 6; 6-8. Arghyadip Das, Pranjal Das, U.M. Utarid 5.5; 9-15. R.S. Krishnan, Rahul Shandilya, V. Kamble, Preetham Sharma, Amaresh Nayak, Himanshu Sharma, Arjun Oberoi 5 each.

Girls: 1. Y. Prathiba 6.5; 2. J.E. Kavitha 6; 3-5. Anuradha Beniwal, H. Nilavoli, N. Sandya 5.5; 6- 10. Baisakhi Das, C.V.Rajalakshmi, Ananya Sarcar, Malawika Singh, M. Priyadarshini 5 each.

lThe results (eighth and penultimate round):

Boys: P.S. Mokal (Mah) 6 lost to P. Maheshchandran (TN) 7; J.M. Utarid (VCA) 5.5 drew S.R. Kidambi (CCI) 6; Valay Parikh (Guj) 6 bt Arjun Uberoi (Mah) 5; Abhishek Srivastava (Raj) 6 bt R. Preetham Sharma (CCI) 5; Arghyadip Das (Goodricke) 5.5 bt Somak Palit (Goodricke) 4.5; J. Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) 4.5 lost to Pranjal Das (WB) 5.5; R.S. Krishnan (T. Nagar) 5 drew Amaresh Nayak (Ori) 5; R. Naveen (Capa) 4.5 lost to Himanshu Sharma (Har) 5.5; V. Kamble (Mah) 5 bt O. Patwardhan (Mah) 4; Akash Thakur (NCA) 4.5 drew Yashpal Sonwani (MP) 4.5; Kumardeep Chakraborty (WB) 4.5 drew K. Mahendran (TN) 4.5; Puneet Jaiswal (WB) 4 drew Rahul Sangma (NLM) 4.

Girls: Y. Prathiba (TN) 6.5 bt M. Priyadarshini (TN) 5; J.E. Kavitha (TN) 6 bt Baisakhi Das (WB) 5; H. Nilavoli (Capa) 5.5 drew N. Sandya (Ker) 5.5; Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 5.5 drew C.V. Rajalakshmi (TN) 5; B. Latha (TN) 4.5 drew N. Vinuthna (AP) 4.5; Ananya Sarkar (WB) 5 bt Alka Das (Bih) 4; Malawika Singh (Bih) 5 bt K. Prajeesha (Ker) 4; Aradhana Padhary (Bih) 4.5 drew Pooja Rathod (MP) 4.5; R. Mahima (TN) 4.5 bt H. Isaiamudhu (TN) 3.5; M. Rajadarshini (Tnagar) 4 bt Neha Jayaswal (Bih) 3.

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