Asian Junior Chess set for an exciting finish

The Asian Junior Chess Championship was heading for a close finish as four players shared the lead in the open section here today with two rounds remaining.
The seventh round produced some exciting matches and unexpected results. Top seed and overnight joint leader Aravindh Chithambaram suffered a shock defeat from International Master Mousavi Seyed Khalil of Iran in a Queen's Indian Defence game which lasted 44 moves while other leader S L Narayanan forced to sign the peace treaty with Arjun Kalyan.
The results helped second seed Karthikeyan Murali to join the leaders' board as he outwitted Rakesh Kumar Jena in a well crafted game.

But the star of the day was West Bengal youngster Rajdeep Sarkar, who overpowered Iranian International Master Mosadeghpour Masoud in 71 moves and jumped to the pole position with five and half points along with Narayanan, Mousavi and Karthikeyan.
In the girls section, top seed Vaishali escaped from the claws of defeat as her opponent Chandreyye Hajra messed up a clear winning game to share the point in an English Opening. Vaishali and Hajra are in lead with five and half points while former champion Ivana Maria Furtado, Balakannamma and Priyanka along with Mongolian girl Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh are closely following the leaders with a drift of half points.

Ivana defeated Akshaya Nandakumar while Bala, Priyanka and Uuriintuya defeated Sakshi Chitlange, Divya Lakshmi and Nandhidhaa PV respectively in seventh round encounter.