By Praful Zaveri in Mumbai
Day Four
The overnight leader in the Girls U-8 section, 2nd Macrina Lobo suffered reverses at the hands of 4th seeded Sneha Gada of Birla Memorial in the sixth round and it seemed that Sneha would run away with title as she had already played the other seeded players above her and had to face lowly placed Queenie Sukhadia of Cathedral and John Cannon High School in the seventh round. But in an equal position she tried to extract more out of the game and lost the game. This unexpected win of Queenie has thrown the section wide open as top seeded Siddhali Shetye, Macrina Lobo and 5th seeded Kavya Pai joined Sneha in the lead with 5.5 points. With two rounds remaining in this section, a keen contest is on the cards to decide the champion.
In the Girls Under-12 section, the top-seeded Purva of Gokuldham High School took measure of her twin sister and 2nd seeded Mugdha Variyar to go into the lead with 6.5/7. This win has almost ensured that the trophy will stay with the Variyars for one more year. With two rounds also remaining in this section, only Trichi Chawla of Father Agnel with 6/7 can pose some challenge to Purva. Trichi is followed by Vandita Agarwal and Ketaki Kulkarni with 5.5 points.
In the Boys Under-8 group, 7th seeded Sudarshan Lamture of Fatima High School moved into the top gear in the crucial sixth and seventh round. In the sixth round he took measure of top-seeded Karan Ajinkya of Yashodham High School who was placed 15th in the last Nationals (U-7) at Aurangabad. In the 7th round he was lucky to beat 4th seeded Aditya Udeshi of R.N. Shah High School to emerge as the sole leader with seven points from as many rounds. Barring some unexpected reverses in the last three rounds, Sudarshan is all set to claim the championship. A big group of seven players – Karan Ajinkya, Aditya Udeshi, Vikrant Pawaskar, Ashit Pandya, Siddharth Raikar, Parag Manudhane and Suraj Borate are trailing Sudarshan by one full point.
The Boys Under-12 section is heading for a close finish as an unknown player in the Mumbai chess circuit Anand Sundar of Hiranandani School crushed top-seeded Ashwin Ganapathy of Father Agnel to move into the joint 2nd spot behind 8th seeded Akash Khalwadekar of St. Stanislaus High School. Anand is paired against Akash in the 9th round and this may decide the fate of the championship. The two other players, Sachin Kamath and Ishan Nadkarni, also of Father Agnel, shares the lead with Anand Sundar. These players are followed by another five players on 6.5 points.
The fifth day is the concluding day for the Girl’s section who are having nine rounds while the Boy’s U-8 section has two round and Boys U-12 section has three more rounds to go.
Results of top five boards :
Girls Under 8 – Round No. 7
1.Queenie Sukhadia (5.5) beat Sneha Gada (5.5)
2.Macrina Lobo (5.5) drew with Siddhali Shetye (5.5)
3.Kavya Pai (5.5) beat Sayali Dolas (5)
4.Abhigail Fernandes (5) beat Krusha Shah (4)
5.Apeksha Porwal (4) lost to Neha Sharma (5)
Girls Under 12 – Round No. 7
1.Purva Variyar (6.5) beat Mugdha Variyar (5)
2.Vandita Agarwal (5.5) drew with Trichi Chawla (6)
3.Ketki Kulkarni (5.5) beat Ruchita Lalmalani (5)
4.Monika Maskeri (5) drew with Gayatri Velu (5)
5.Pooja Kothari (4.5) Swarali Thipsay(4.5)
Boys Under 8 – Round No. 7
1.Aditya Udeshi (6) lost to beat Sudarshan Lamture (7)
2.Karan Ajinkya (6) beat Priyal Nagare (5)
3.Vikrant Pawaskar (6) beaat Saurabh Saju (5)
4.Makrand D Maldikar (5) lost to Ashit Pandya (6)
5.Sapatashwa Ghosh (5) lost to Siddharth Raikar (6)
Boys Under 12 - Round No. 8
1.Akash Khalwadekar (7.5) beat Rohil Bhat (6)
2.Ashwin Ganapathy (6) lost to Anand Sundar(7)
3.Sachin Kamath (7) beat Sahil Mujumdar (6)
4.Sanju Malaikal (6.5) drew with Vishal Shah(6.5)
5.Ishan Nadkarni (7) beat Pratik Shenoy(6)
Schedule for 03/11/2000:
10:30 am to 3:30 pm Under 8 Boys & Girls Round No.
8, 9
10:30 am to 4:30 pm Under 12 Girls Round No. 8, 9
10:30 am to 5:00 pm Under 12 Boys Round No. 9, 10
Venue: Prabhodhankar Thackeray Sports Complex,
Shahaji Raje Road,
Vile-Parle (East),
Mumbai – 400 057.