Date:05/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/05/stories/2008050560882100.htm

Sport - Chess

Harshal, Hetul in lead

NEW DELHI: Local favourite Harshal Shahi defeated overnight leader Goa’s Anirudh Bhat and second seed Hetul Shah accounted for Abinash Dutta to share the lead with eight points after nine rounds of the Parsvnath National under-9 chess championship at the Bapu Samaj Sewa Kendra here on Sunday.

On the last double-round day, Rajasthan Kratika Shekhawat stunned top seed and two-time World under-8 girls’ champion Ivana Furtado to leave Kerala’s C. H. Meghna in the sole lead with eight points.

The results:

Open: Ninth round: Anirudh Bhat (Goa, 7.5) lost to Harshal Shahi (Del, 8); Abinash Dutta (Asm, 6.5) lost to Hetul Shah (Guj, 8); Arjun Bhagat (Kar, 7.5) bt Y. Saiakshay (AP, 6.5); C. Saivishvesh (TN, 6.5) lost to Jerome Jorge Ebenezer (TN, 7.5); Jeen Jain (Guj, 7) bt M. Aadhityaa (TN, 6); S. Sriram (TN, 6.5) drew with Aditya Vaidya (Guj, 6.5); R. U. Anantharam (Kar, 7) bt Sreyan Bhowmick (Ben, 6); Nachiket Dhonnar (Mah, 7) bt Kushagra Sharma (Raj, 6); Abhimanyu Puranik (Mah, 6) lost to Adarsh Shrivastava (UP, 6.5); M. Sabhareesh (TN, 6) drew with Harmeet Thurkan (Hary, 6).

Eighth round: Aadhityaa lost to Aniurdh; Hetul bt Anantharam; Aditya lost to Harshal; Ravindra lost to Arjun; Akshay bt Pavit; K. Sanjay lost to Abinash; Yashaswat Srivastava lost to Ebenezer; Aniruddh Aiyengar lost to Saivishvesh; Kushagra bt Karthikeyan Murali; M. Arvind lost to Abhimanyu.

Girls: Ninth round: Kratika Shekhawat (Raj, 7) bt Ivana Furtado (Goa, 7); Shiny Das (Tri, 6) lost to C. H. Meghna (Ker, 8); R. Manjula (TN, 7) bt Chandreyee Hazra (Ben, 6); Sribrinda Rout (Ori, 6) lost to Parveen Hilmi (Ker, 7); Riya Savant (Goa, 6.5) bt A. S. Saughanthika (TN, 5.5); K. Niveditha (TN, 6.5) bt Rutuja Bakshi (Mah, 5.5); Anjali Manoj (Ker, 5) lost to Tejaswini Sagar (Mah, 6.5); Pratistha Prasad (Har, 5) lost to Abhirami Ravi (TN, 5); Ekisha Basu (Mah, 5.5) drew with K. Rakshana (TN, 5.5); Gauri Hadkonkar (Goa, 6) bt P. Preethy (Pon, 5).

Eighth round: Ivana bt Shiny; Meghna bt Sribrinda; Chandrevee Hazra bt Riya; Parveen bt Rohini; K. Rakshana lost to Kratika; Shreya Sankalp lost to R. Manjula; Tejaswini Sagar drew with K. Niveditha; Rutuja Bakshi bt K. Nagadrithi; Saughanthika bt P. Varsini; Abirami Ravi bt K. Vaisalie.