Date:20/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/20/stories/2008112056522000.htm

Sport - Chess

Sahaj Grover, Shiven Khosla and Sai Krishna in lead

Arvind Aaron

Chennai: The top three seeds — Sahaj Grover of Delhi, Shiven Khosla of Mumbai and Sai Krishna of Vijayawada — are in joint lead with seven points each at the end of the eighth round in the VIT National under-13 chess championships at the VIT University in Vellore on Wednesday.

Also, there are seven other players tied for the fourth place on 6.5 points.

This section is still wide open and up for grabs. Any of these eleven players who finish well in the last three rounds could win the tournament and go on to represent India in the World under-14 champioship at Turkey in 2009.

Overnight leader Fenil Shah was brought down by a brilliant knight sacrifice by Sai Krishna on move 28. To avoid mate, Fenil had to surrender his queen and the Andhra boy used the extra material to win the seventh game.

Top seed Sahaj Grover of Delhi was at his aggressive best when he crushed Ajay Srikanth in just 30 moves with the black pieces. Yogesh Gautam of Haryana lost to second seed Shiven Khosla in 29 moves after he could not handle the white side against the dragon variation. Shiven’s better knowledge of the opening won him two pawns and the game.

In the girls section, Saranya of Chennai maintained her half point lead with a victory over National under-11 champion Srija Seshadri. Saranya is on 7.5 points while former world under-10 Sahajasri of Karimnagar is in second place with seven points. Former national under-11 champion Priyanka Kumari of Jharkhand is in clear third position on 6.5 points.

Top seed Saranya had an easy outing defeating state mate Srija in 49 moves with the white pieces after she won pawns at will and later a piece. Sahajasri scored a hard earned 71-move win with the black pieces against Pratyusha to move up to the clear second place.

Anjana Krishna of Tiruvananthapuram won a pawn but in the queen and rook ending her king was more exposed and she lost to Priyanka Kumari.

Important results (round eight): Boys: Fenil Shah (Guj) 6.5 lost to G.V. Sai Krishna (AP) 7, Ajay Srikanth 6 (TN) lost to Sahaj Grover (Del) 7, Yogesh Gautam (Har) 6 lost to Shiven Khosla (Mah) 7, U.R. Sahoo (Ori) 6 drew with Karma Pandya (Guj) 6.5, N. Manjunath (Kar) 6.5 bt Chandrasish Majumdar (Ben) 5.5, D. Yashas (Kar) 5.5 lost to Vishnu Sharon (TN) 6.5, K. Athish (Ker) 5.5 lost to Rishi Thariani (Del) 6.5, M. Kathirvel (Pon) 5.5 lost to Deepthamsh Reddy (AP) 6.5, Megh Patel (Guj) 6.5 bt M. Swaroop (TN) 5.5.

Girls: J. Saranya (TN) 7.5 bt Srija Seshadri (TN) 6, B. Pratyusha (AP) 6 lost to Cholleti Sahajasri (AP) 7, Anjana Krishna (Ker) 6 lost to Priyanka Kumari (Jha) 6.5, Michelle Catherina (TN) 6 drew with P.V. Nandhidhaa (TN) 6, Vanessa D’souza (Kar) 6 drew with G. Lasya (AP) 6, M. Mahalakshmi (TN) 6 bt V. Janu (TN) 5.