Asian Jr C'ship: Naryananan regains top spot

The drawn encounter between M. Karthikeyan and Iran’s Seyed Khalil Mousavi ensured that Naryananan, the early leader in the competition, ended the day at the top of the heap.

S. L. Narayanan (right) contemplating a move on way to victory overRajdeep Sarkar in the eighth round of the Asian Junior chesschampionship in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The deciding round the Asian Junior chess promises a close finish, in both sections, after the eighth and penultimate round produced some nervous moments for the leading contenders here on Tuesday.

Grandmaster S. L. Narayanan (6.5 points) regained the lead after taming fellow joint-overnight leader Rajdeep Sarkar. The drawn encounter between M. Karthikeyan and Iran’s Seyed Khalil Mousavi ensured that Naryananan, the early leader in the competition, ended the day at the top of the heap.

Top seed Aravindh Chithambaran moved to the joint second spot with six points after expectedly getting the better of Arjun Kalyan.

Karthikeyan, Mousavi and another Iranian, Nima Javanbakht, are the other players with six points.

Among the girls, top seed R. Vaishali, fourth seeded Mangolian Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh and K. Priyanka share the lead at six points. Vaishali found the going tough against the Goan girl, Ivana Furtado, and settled for a draw. This enabled the victorious duo of Priyanka and Uuriintuya to match Vaishali’s tally.

Leading eighth-round results (Indians unless stated):

Open: M. Karthikeyan (6) drew with Seyed Khalil Mousavi (Iri, 6); S. L. Narayanan (6.5) bt Rajdeep Sarkar (5.5); Arjun Kalyan (5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (6); Nima Javanbakht (Iri, 6) bt Sammed Shete (5); Mosaud Mosadeghpour (Iri, 5.5) bt Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (4.5); Shailesh Dravid (4.5) lost to Harsha Bharathakoti (5.5); Rahul Srivatshav (5) drew with Srijit Paul (5); Rakesh Kumar Jena (5) drew with Rakesh Kumar Nayak (5); Ankit Gajwa (5) bt R. Ganesh (4); Kelsinbek Isakzhanov (Kgz, 4.5) drew with Chandra Prakash (4.5).

Girls: Ivana Furtado (5.5) drew with R. Vaishali (6); Chandreyee Hajra (5.5) lost to K. Priyanka (6); Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh (Mgl, 6) bt Bala Kannamma (5); V. Varshini (4.5) lost to G. Harshita (5.5); Shweta Gole (4.5) lost to P. V. Nandhidhaa (5.5); Hamedi Nia Vesal (Iri, 5) drew with N. Priyanka (5); C. M. N. Sunyuktha (5) drew with Michelle Catherine (4.5); Sakshi Chitlange (5) bt Akshaya Nandakumar (4); Shanya Mishra (5) bt Divya Lakshmi (4); Ananya Suresh (5) bt Sanskriti Goyal (4).

Leading final-round sports:

Open: Mousavi-Narayanan; Aravindh-Javanbakht; Sarkar-Karthikeyan; Harsha-Masoud; Nayak-Kalyan.

Girls: Vaishali-Uuriintuya; Priyanka-Nandhidhaa; Harshita-Chandreyee; Kannamma-Ivana; Hamedi-Shanya.