Sunil Rangarajan, Vijay Keerthi in lead

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE, MAY 19. Karnataka's Sunil Rangarajan in the under-14 section and Vijay Keerthi in the under-12 section emerged leaders in their respective groups in the National chess tournament at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.

Sunil Rangarajan playing black defeated R. Siddarth and shared the top spot with Abhijit Gupta who defeated Akshay Raj Kore. Both Sunil and Abhijit have five and a half points from six rounds.

In the under-12 section, Vijay Keerthi, a diminutive player from Mysore, took the sole lead in the sixth round this morning beating the more fancied Vijil Pujara seeded fifth. Vijay Keerthi consolidated his position in the evening round forcing top seed G. Rohit to share points with. Vijay Keerthi seeded 13th has a half point lead in this section now over Rohit.

In the girls' section, Eesha Sanjay Karavad defeated Statemate Kruthika Nadig after a Sicilian Taimonov opening in 52 moves to be the clear leader with six points from six rounds. N. Vinutha was half a point behind Eesha Sanjay Karavad.

In the under-12 section Sowmya Swaminathan led by half a point over Harika Dronavalli. The pair shared points in their sixth round match but Harika was held to a draw in the morning by M. Rajadarshini while Sowmya Swaminathan defeated G. Sowmya in her fifth round match.

Vijay Keerthi playing against top seed G. Rohit adopted the Piric defence. Initially Rohit held all the aces strengthening his position but he allowed Vijay Keerthi to escape from the jaws of defeat and even force an honourable draw after 39 moves. In a bishop-knight ending Vijay Keerthi moved his knight effectively to force a draw and spurt to the top of the table. The second and third board matches were still in progress in this group.

The results:

Boys under-12 (seventh round): G. Rohit drew with Vijay Keerthi; Vijil Pujara drew with Soumitra Mujumdar; Shankar Mujumdar drew with Abhishek Nitin Kelkar; T. Abhay drew with Y. Bhanu Pratap; Khumukcham Sanjon lost to Ishan S. Nadkarni. Sixth round: Vijay Keerthi bt Vijil Pujara; Rahul Sangma lost to G. Rohit; M Abhinav lost to Soumitra Muzumdar; Dasari Sai Srinivas drew with Khumukcham Sanjon; Y. Bhanupratap bt A. Vishnuvardhan.

Under-14: (sixth round): R. Siddharth lost to Sunil Rangarjan; Akshay Raj Kore lost to Abhijit Gupta; Tanmoy Patnaik drew with Sayantan Dutta; Deepan Chakravarthy bt Arun Prasad; Nikilesh Kumar drew with Phaneedra Reddy.

Girls under-12: Harika Dronavalli drew with M. Rajadarshini; Sowmya Swaminathan bt G. Sowmya; P. Shivashankari bt P.K. Jayashree; P. Laxmi lost to Anuri Mehul Shah; Kiran Mohant lost to D. Minu. Sixth round: Harika Dronavalli drew with Sowmya Swaminathan; M. Rajadarshini bt P. Shivashankari; Anoori Mehul Shah bt R. Sharada; A.N. Sowjanya bt D. Minu; Raja Surya lost to V.K. Sindhu.

Under-14: N. Vinutha drew with Kruthika Nadig; Essha Sanjay Karavad bt B. Latha; P. Priya drew with Supriya Maji; Inchara Shivlingaiah lost to M. Priyadarshini; Mugda Variar lost to Ishwarya Shobhana. Sixth round: Kruthika Nadig lost to Essha Sanjay Karavad; L. Ishwarya Shobhana lost to N. Vinutha; M.Priyadarshini lost to Paramita Ghosh; B. Latha lost to P. Priya; R. Mahima bt Madhura Deshpande.

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