Date:04/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/04/stories/2009010455761400.htm

Sport - Chess

Two share lead

Arvind Aaron

Nagpur: Saurabh Anand of Patna and P. Nithya of Hyderabad have emerged as sole leaders at the end of the sixth round in the National under-7 chess championships at the Agrasen Bhavan here on Saturday.

Saurabh recorded twin wins for a memorable Saturday. In the morning he checkmated Harshit Raja of Maharashtra in 63 moves and in the evening he downed J. Ashwin of Karnataka.

Nithya accepted the queen’s gambit with black to defeat Statemate Bansi Prathima with the black pieces in the evening after registering a quick win over Abirama Srinidhi of Tamil Nadu. She is trained by P. Jaganmohan of Hyderabad who is accompanying her in Nagpur. Five rounds remain to be played. International Arbiter K. Muralimohan of Chennai said from round five onwards players have to remain in their seats and results and scoresheets will be collected by arbiters from the tables.

Important results: Sixth round: Boys: J. Ashwin (Kar) 5 lost to Saurabh Anand (Bih) 6, Prameya Garge (Mah) 5.5 drew with Aryan Chopra (Del) 5, Mitrabha Guha (Ben) 5.5 bt S. Vaishta (Kar) 4.5. Girls: Bansi Prathima (AP) 5 lost to P. Nithya (AP) 6, Arpita Mukherjee (Ben) 5 bt Tarini Goyal (Cha) 5, K. Pooja (Ker) 5 bt Anjali Murthy (MP) 4. Fifth round: Boys: R.R. Hirthickkesh (TN) 4.5 drew with Mitrabha Guha (Ben) 4.5, Nitish Belurkar (Goa) 4 lost to J. Ashwin (Kar) 5, Ayush Pattnaik (MP) 4 lost to Prameya Garge (Mah) 5, Harshit Raja (Mah) 4 lost to Saurabh Anand (Bih) 5.

Girls: B. Brindhaa (TN) 4 lost to Bansi Prathima (AP) 5, Anjali Murthy (MP) 4 lost to Tarini Goyal (Cha) 5, P. Nithya (AP) 5 bt Abirama Srinidhi (TN) 3.5.