Four boys in joint lead, Rakshitta Ravi sole leader in girls division at National Junior Open Chess Championships

Four boys are in the joint lead, while Rakshitta Ravi is the sole leader in the girls' division in the MPL 51st National Junior Open and 36th Under-19 Girls Chess Championships, as of Tuesday.

The week-long tournament is being organized by Pune District Chess Circle in association with Maharashtra Chess Association under the auspices of the All India Chess Federation (AICF).

FIDE Master Ayush Sharma of Madhya Pradesh, Vrashank Chouhan of Rajasthan, AGM B Vignesh and S Aswath - both from Tamil Nadu - emerged as joint leaders in the boys section at the end of the 10th round.

Rakshitta Ravi of Tamil Nadu maintained her lead in the girls section with nine points to her credit.

Board leader till Monday, Vrashank Chouhan came back after hiccups in the last two rounds to outwit FM Mohammad Anees of Tamil Nadu in 60 moves in Catalan variation of Queen's Gambit Declined.

Overnight leader L Srihari of Puducherry went down against FM Ayush Sharma of Madhya Pradesh.

Alekhya Mukhopadhyay of West Bengal lost to AGM B Vignesh of Tamil Nadu, while S Aswath registered a win over Maharashtra’s Rishabh Gokhale to take the joint leader position.

Tejaswini of Tamil Nadu holds leader Rakshitta Ravi to a draw in Junior Chess Nationals

G Tejaswini of Tamil Nadu held leader WIM Rakshitta Ravi to a creditable draw, playing the Nimzo Indian Defense. The position was roughly even later on, players repeated the moves and the game was drawn.

It was the second draw for Tamil Nadu’s Rakshitta Ravi who still managed to hold on to the top position on the leaderboard.

WIM Rakshitta Ravi of Tamil Nadu was held to a draw by her statemate G Tejaswini in the 10th round on Tuesday. (Pic credit: AICF)

Chess Results (Round 10)

Boys Open

Srihari L (Puducherry) (7.5) lost to FM Ayush Sharma (MP) (8)

FM Mohamed Anees M (TN) (7) lost to Vrashank Chouhan (Raj) (8)

Alekhya Mukhopadhyay (WB) (7) lost to AGM Vignesh B (TN) (8)

Aswath S (TN) (8) bt Rishabh Gokhale (Mah) (7)

Arun Kataria (Raj) (7.5) bt Mandar Lad (Goa) (6.5)

Adireddy Arjun (TS) (7) bt Yash Bharadia (Raj) (6)

Anadkat Kartavya (Guj) (6.5) drew with Krishnan Ritvik (Mah) (6.5)

CM Mayank Chakraborty (Assam) (7) bt Kartik Kumar Singh (Mah) (6)

Ajay Parvathareddy (UP) (6) lost to Hriday Panchal (Delhi) (7)

Gaurang Bagwe (Mah) (7) bt Dishank Bajaj (Mah) (6)

Soham Dey (WB) (6.5) drew with Mehta Naitik R (Guj) (6.5)

CM Mrithyunjay Mahadevan (TN) (5.5) lost to Arnav Kherdekar (Mah) (7).

Girls

Tejaswini G (TN) (7.5) drew with WIM Rakshitta Ravi (TN) (9)

WCM Bristy Mukherjee (WB) (7) lost to WFM Bhagyashree Patil (Mah) (8)

WIM Bommini Mounika Akshaya (AP) (8) bt Vijaya Subhasri S (TN) (6.5)

Rindhiya V (TN) (7) dew with WFM Jyothsna L (TN) (7)

Sani Deshpande (Mah) (6.5) drew with Velpula Sarayu (TS) (6.5)

Divyabharathi Masanam (TN) (6) lost to Poorna Sri MK (TN) (7)

Meenatchi V (TN) (6) lost to AFM Shubhi Gupta (UP) (7)

Sudipa Haldar (WB) (5.5) lost to Aditi Kayal (Mah) (7)

Sherali Pattnaik (Uttarakhand) (6) drew with Dhanashree Khairmode (Mah) (6)

Sai Mahathi A (TS) (6.5) bt Vakcheri Mohitha (AP) (5.5)

Disha Patil (Mah) (6) drew with Kasthuri Bhai R (Andaman and Nicobar Islands) (6)

Charvi Patidar (Raj) (6) drew with WCM Sanskruti Wankhade (Mah) (6).