National U-18 chess: Soham, Bhagyashree in sole lead

Soham Kamotra beats Avinash Ramesh; Bhagyashree Patil gets the better of S. Kanishka.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Soham Kamotra and Bhagyashree Patil lead with seven points each in their respective categories.

Overnight joint leader Soham Kamotra (J&K) defeated Avinash Ramesh (TN) to emerge as the sole leader in the open section after the seventh round of the MPL 31st National Under-18 chess championship in Pollachi on Thursday.

REPORT - FIFTH ROUND

Top seed and GM elect Bharath Subramaniyam (TN) lost a crucial game in the seventh round against State-mate IM L. R. Srihari. In the girls’ section, Bhagyashree Patil (Maharashtra) got the better of S. Kanishka (TN) for a place on top of the table.

• Open : Bharath Subramaniyam (TN) 5.5 lost to L.R. Srihari (TN) 6; Avinash Ramesh (TN) 6 lost to Soham Kamotra 6.5; Ayush Sharma (MP 5 lost to Krishnan Ritvik (Mah) 6; A.R. Ilamparithi (TN) 6 bt S. P. K. Arul Anandh (TN); John Veny Akkarakaran (Ker) 5.5 drew with Rakshith Srinivasan (Kar) 5.5.
• Girls : S. Kanishka (TN) 5.5 lost to Bhagyashree Patil (Mah) 7; Chinnam Vyshnavi (AP) 5.5 drew with V. Rindhiya (TN) 5.5; Keerti Shree Reddy (TN) 6 bt Anupam M. Sreekumar (Ker) 5; Ishvi Aggarwal (Har) 5.5 bt Khairmode Dhanashree (Mah) 4.5; S. Vijayasubhasri (TN) 5.5 bt Priya Mondal (WB) 4.5.