West Bengal’s second-seeded Neelash Saha hung on to his top spot after signing a peace treaty with top-seeded Statemate Aronyak Ghosh in the eighth round of the 30th National under-17 open chess championship at the Oberon Mall here on Thursday.
Arjun in second spot
Saha has seven points from eight rounds while Delhi’s Arjun Gupta (6.5) is second.
In the girls’ section, Odisha’s top-seeded Saina Salonika and Tamil Nadu’s L. Jyothsna were at the top of the heap with 6.5 points each from eight rounds.
The results (eighth round):
Open: Aronyak Ghosh (WB, 6) drew with Neelash Saha (WB, 7).
Jayachandra Srinivas (TN, 6) drew with R. Sibi Visal (TN, 6); Arunachalam Shivaa (TN, 5.5) lost to Arjun Gupta (Del, 6.5).
Wairagade Khush (Mah, 5) lost to Ayush Sharma (MP, 6); Vrandesh Parekh (Guj, 5.5) drew with M. Mohammed Anees (TN, 5.5).
Girls: B. Kalyani (AP, 6) drew with Saina Salonika (Odi, 6.5); L. Jyothsna (TN, 6.5) bt V. Nanditha (TS, 5).
Samriddhaa Ghosh (WB, 6) bt Yuti Mayur Patel (Mah, 5).
M. Benasir (TN, 5) drew with Sneha Bharathakoti (TS, 5.5); Diya Chowdhury (WB, 5) drew with Shanya Mishra (Del, 5).