Aravindh in joint lead at Asian youth chess

After a slow start, top seed International Master Aravindh Chithambaram came back strongly to take joint lead in the Under-16 Open category of the Asian Youth Chess Championship here Tuesday.

He defeated overnight sole leader Loraprizangeneh Shahin of Iran in the sixth round. Aravindh, along with teammate Vignesh N.R. and Shahin, is now leading the table with 4.5 points.

Meanwhile, overnight sole leaders Vaishali R. in Girls U-14, Monnisha G.K. in Girls U-16 and Chakravarthi Reddy in Open U-18 are maintaining their sole leads after sixth round encounters.

In U-14 Open section, Harsha Bharathakoti defeated overnight joint leader Tahbaz Arash and is giving company to top seed Tabatabaei Amin of Iran at top of the points table.

In U-18 Girls, Vietnamese Tran Le Dan Thuy joined the Indian trio of Michelle Catherina, Shweta Gole and Parnali Dharia at the top with 4.5 points.

Important Round 6 results (Indians otherwise stated):

U-14 Girls: Vaishali R. (5.5) beat Tejaswini Sagar (3.5); Savant Riya (4.5) drew with Aakanksha Hagawane (4); Hilmi Parveen (4.5) beat Alinasab Mobina of Iran (3.5); Priyanka K. (4.5) beat Ananya Suresh (3.5); Orazmukhammedova Makhim of Uzbekistan (3) lost to Muratova Saltant of Kazakhstan (4).

U-14 Open: Harsha Bhrathakoti (5) beat Tahbaz Arash (4); Harikrishnan A. (3.5) lost to Tabatabaei M. Amin of Iran (5); Jacutina John Merill (4.5) drew with Mitrabha Guha (4); Myradow Soltan of Turkmenistan (3.5) lost to Nigmatov Ortik of Uzbekistan (4.5); Gholami Aryan (4) beat Kumar Gaurav (3).

U-16 Girls: Nguyen Hoang Anh of Vietnam (4) drew with Monnisha G.K. (5); Mahalakshmi (4.5) drew with Derakhashani Dorsa of Iran (4.5); Varshini V. (4) drew with Gholami Orimi Anahita of Iran (4); Meghna C.H. (4.5) beat Bui Thuy Vy of Vietnam (3); Mendoza Shania Mae of Philippines (4) beat Gayetri R. (3).

U-16 Open: Lorparizangeneh Shain of Iran (4.5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (4.5); Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (3) lost to Vignesh N.R. (4.5); Rahman Adel (3.5) drew with Visakh N.R. (4); Kumaran B. (3.5) drew with Pranav Vijay (3.5); Taalaibekov Tagir of Kyrgyzstan (4) beat Urazayev Arystanbek of Kazakhstan (3).

U-18 Girls: Michelle Catherina (4.5) drew with Parnali S. Dharia (4.5); Kakhramonova Mokhinur of Uzbekistan (4) drew with Shweta Gole (4.5); Ovezova Mengli of Turkmenistan (3) lost to Tran Le Dan Thuy of Vietnam (4.5); Tursunova Shakhnoza of Uzbekistan (3) lost to Srija Seshadri (4); Bala Kannamma P (3.5) drew with Madhurima Shekhar (3.5).

U-18 Open: Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad (4) drew with Chakravarthi Reddy (4.5); Serikbay Chingiz of Kazakhstan (3.5) lost to Mosadeghpur Masoud of Iran (4); Mejia Giovanni of Philippines (3.5) drew with Krishna Teja N. (4); Aubhropratim Manna (4) beat Jumanov Elbek of Uzebkistan (3); Mamatov Melis of Kyrgyzstan (3) lost to Ikramul Haq Siam of Bangladesh (4).