Aravindh, Visakh share lead at RAMCO Chess

Chennai - Top seed and FIDE Master V.R. Aravindh Chithambaram shared the lead with his Tamil Nadu statemate N.R. Visakh with 6.5 points in the Open section after the seventh round of the RAMCO 26th National Under-13 Open and Girls chess championship here Wednesday.

Both the leaders won their games against Ritviz Parab (Goa) and V. Karthik (AP) without much ado. Sharing the third spot with six points were M. Aadhityaa, Pranav Vijay (both TN) along with Sharan Rao of Karnataka.

In a closed Sicilian game, Aravindh outwitted his Goan challenger going for an exchange of queen versus two rooks. Making further in-roads into his opponent’s territory, Aravindh gained the full point when Ritvik lost a piece and resigned on the 32nd move.

In the girls section, top seeded National Under-11 champion R. Vaishali of Tamil Nadu continued her grand run defeating second seed challenger from Goa Savant Riya.

Spotting a tactical opportunity, Vaishali snatched two pieces for her rook and converted the ensuing end game with pin point precision. The win gave the Chennai girl a clear one point lead at 7.0 points. Following the leader is Woman Candidate Master Tejaswini Sagar of Maharashtra at 6.0 points.

Round 7 results:

Boys: Ritviz Parab (Goa) 5.5 lost to V R Aravindh Chithambaram (TN) 6.5, N R Visakh (TN) 6.5 bt V Karthik (AP) 5, M Aadhityaa (TN) 6 bt Abhimanyu Puranik (Mah) 5, Pranav Vijay (TN) 6 bt S Ajay Krishna (TN) 5, Naik Rishubh Naresh (Goa) 5.5 drew with C Sai Vishwesh (TN) 5.5, A L Muthaiah (TN) 5.5 drew with Y Grahesh (AP) 5.5, Sharan Rao (Kar) 6 bt V Pranavananda (AP) 4.5, Aradhya Garg (Del) 5.5 bt Harsha Bharathakoti (AP) 4.5, Kaustuv Kundu (WB) 5.5 bt R U Anantharam (Kar) 4.5, A Abhishek (Ker) 5 drew with Chandar Raju (Ker) 5.

Girls: R Vaishali (TN) 7 bt Savant Riya (Goa) 5, Tejaswini Sagar (Mah) 6 bt Bakshi Rutuja (Mah) 4.5, Bidhar Rutumbara (Ori) 4.5 lost to Shiny Das (Tri) 5.5, R Manjula (TN) 5.5 bt C R Varsha (TN) 4.5, Anigani Kavya (AP) 4.5 lost to D Meera (TN) 5.5, Bhagya Jayesh (Ker) 4.5 lost to Potluri Saye Srreezza (AP) 5.5, Harshita Guddanti (AP) 5.5 bt Vishwa Shah (Mah) 4.5, Shweta Priyadarshini (UP) 5.5 bt H R Manasa (Kar) 4, S Ananya (Kar) 5 bt Potluri Supreetha (AP) 4, Angira Choudhuri (WB) 4.5 drew with I Harivardhini (TN) 4.5.