Top seeded Kaustav Chatterjee of Bengal re-established the sole lead downing B. Harshavardhan of Tamil Nadu in the seventh round of the 44th National sub-junior under-15 Open chess at Kalyani, on Saturday.
The win gave the so-far unbeaten Kaustav 6.5 points, which placed him half a point above a field of six players placed second with six points each.
Second seeded Sankalp Gupta of Maharashtra beat S.K. Kanishk of Tamil Nadu on the second board to reach the second spot while becoming Kaustav’s opponent in the eighth round.
In the girls’ section, top seed Divya Deshmukh of Maharashtra was held to a draw by L. Jyothsna of Tamil Nadu.
Despite the result, Divya was able to keep the lead, which she shared with state-mate Bhagyashree Patil with six points each.
Important results (after seventh round): Koustav Chatterjee (Ben) 6.5 bt B. Harshavardhan 5.5, S.K. Kanishk (TN) 5 lost to Sankalp Gupta (Mah) 6, L. Srihari (Pud) 5.5 drew with Aronyak Ghosh (Ben) 5.5, V.S. Raahul (TN) 6 bt P. Vijay Shreeram 5, Mendonca Leon Luke (Goa) 6 bt Hari R Chandran (Ker) 5, S. Abhinessh (TN) 5 lost to Ajay Karthikeyan (TN) 6, Ch Sai Karthik (Tel) 5 lost to Utsab Chatterjee 6, Saypuri Srithan (Tel) 5 lost to Soham Kamotra (J&K) 6.