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Gopal shares lead with Arun

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKDOE MAY 28. He woke up this morning with a fever. But G.N. Gopal showed no signs of his illness as he outplayed Soumitra B. Mujumdar of Maharashtra and set up a title clash with S. Arun Prasad of Tamil Nadu.

Gopal moved into the lead along with Arun, with seven points at the end of the eighth and penultimate round of the National sub-junior boys' championship at the V.K. Krishna Menon Indoor Stadium. Their game on the top board on Thursday will decide the boys' title.

While Arun needs only a draw to clinch the championship, according to chief arbiter K. Ratnakumar, it's a must-win situation for Gopal.

The second seed and overnight sole leader Deep Sengupta, who was beaten by Arun, has 6.5 points.

In the girls' championship, the top two seeds, Mary Ann Gomes of Goodricke National Chess Academy, Kolkata, and Kruttika Nadig of Maharashtra, go into the final round as the joint leaders with seven points each.

Soumya Swaminathan of Venus Chess Academy, Mumbai, is in the second position with 6.5. She meets Mary on the top board in the final round, and for winning the title she not only needs to win her game but would want Saheli Nath of Bengal to beat Kruttika on the second board, according to the chief arbiter.

It's a much easier situation for Kruttika, who just needs to win her game to pick up her maiden National championship. If she doesn't win, Mary's chances will become brighter, provided of course she does well in her own game.

On the boys' top board on Wednesday, Arun, seeded fourth, played English Opening and went a pawn up on the 27th move.

He played correctly to hang on to that advantage, as the game reached a queen-and-bishop versus and queen-and-knight ending. Deep resigned on the 52nd move, when White was about to queen his centre pawn.

Tenth-seeded Gopal began with Reti Opening and sacrificed a king-side pawn to build a potent attack with his queen, rook, knight and bishop.

Soumitra resigned on the 32nd move with his king cornered and his pawns facing extinction.

On the girls' top board, almost expectedly, Mary played Bird's Opening against Raghavi, who was forced to give an exchange soon after the opening and eventually conceded defeat on the 58th move.

Kruttika, with white pieces, made short work of R.K. Shruki of Aaron Chess Academy, Chennai, in a Spanish Game. Shruki blundered a pawn on the 18th move and lost two more before resigning on the 38th move.

The sixth seed Soumya also had it easy against P.K. Jayasree of Tamil Nadu, who employed Sicilian Defence.

The Mumbai girl won a piece for two pawns and then a rook, also for two pawns, on her way to a swift 27-move victory.

Important results (eighth round):

Boys:

S. Arun Prasad (TN) 7 bt Deep Sengupta (Jha) 6.5; G.N. Gopal (Ker) 7 bt Soumitra B. Mujumdar (Mah) 5.5; Vishal V. Shah (Mah) 6 drew with Akshayraj Kore (Mah) 6; V. Haribalu (Capa Academy, Chennai) 5.5 lost to Rahul Sangma (GNCA) 6; K. Vijay Keerthi (Kar) 6 bt D. Sai Srinivas (AP) 5; Soumya Thakurta (Ben) 5.5 drew with Akshat Kamparia (MP) 5.5; T. Abhay (TN) 6 bt Ninad Vijay Puranik (Mah) 5; Vipal Subhashi (Bih) 6 bt Indradeep Giri (Ben) 5; R. Srinivasan (Del) 5 lost to Pratik Srivas (Nagpur Academy, Maharashtra) 6; Joydeep Dutta (Alekhine Club, Kolkata) 6 bt K. Prasanna (Madras Academy, Chennai) 5; P. Karthikeyan (Capa) 5.5 drew with Sriram Sarja (Kar) 5.5.

K. Narayanan (TN) 4.5 lost to K. Nikhilesh Kumar (AP) 5.5; Debayn Majumdar (Ben) 5.5 bt Snehal V. Bhosale (Mah) 4.5; Sankar Majumdar (Ben) 4.5 lost to T. Purushothaman (AP) 5.5; J.S.S. Phanikanth (AP) lost to Y. Sandeep (AP) 5.5; Sumit Shah (Alekhine) 5 drew with B. Adhiban (TN) 5; V. Somesh (AP) 4 lost to Abhijeet Gupta (Raj) 5; Vikram Saralaya (Kings Academy, Andhra) drew with Arun Karthik (Masters Academy, Bangalore) 4.5; C. Sachin (Ker) 4.5 drew with Aswin Jayaram (TN) 4.5; Viswas Saralaya (Kings) 4 lost to Saravana Krishnan (Mount Academy, Chennai) 5.

Girls: Mary Ann Gomes (GNCA) 7 bt N. Raghavi (TN) 6; Kruttika Nadig (Mah) 7 bt R.K. Shruki (Aaron Academy, Chennai) 5.5; I. Ramya Krishna (AP) 6 drew with Kiran Monisha Mohanty (Ori) 6; Soumya Swaminathan (Venus Academy, Mumbai) 6.5 bt P.K. Jayasree (TN) 5.5; P. Sivasankari (TN) 6 bt Koneru Chandra Hawsa (AP) 5; Krithika 5 lost to Saheli Nath (Ben) 6; G. Pratika (Kings) 5.5 drew with Rajadarshini (Emanuel Academy, Chennai) 5.5; Meenu Rajendran (Ker) 5 lost to Anjana N. Sowjanya (Capa) 5.5; Kajri Chokshi (Guj) 4.5 lost to Saba A. Mhate (Mah) 5.5; Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 4.5 lost to V.K. Sindhu (Chennai Academy, TN) 5.5; Lakshmi Sahithi (Champion Academy, AP) 5 drew with P. Uthara (Capa) 5; S. Kirthika (TN) 4.5 lost to S. Harini (TN) 5.5; D.S. Manasa Priya (Masters) 4.5 lost to Rajasurya 5.5; Shradha Mohanan (Goa) 4 lost to L. Iswarya Shobana (TN) 5; R. Saranya (Guj) 4.5 drew with P.A. Fajra (Ker) 4.5; S.V. Sathya Priya (Madras) 5 bt Dhyani Dave (Guj) 4; Kavita Patel (UP) 4 lost to Veena Maunika (AP)5; K. Manasa (Kar) 5 bt V. Gayatri (NLC) 4; R. Varsha (T'Nagar Academy) 4.5 drew with Nayana Rao (AP) 4.5.

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