Diptayan in a three-way lead

Local favourite IM Diptayan Ghosh and B Kumaran registered intense wins to join overnight leader IM Murali Karthikeyan in a three-way battle to the top spot after the penultimate round of the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship here today.
Top seed Diptayan defeated third seed Arvind Chithamabaram while Kumaran outwitted Harsha Bharatkoti to jump to the leaders' pack as IM Murali was held by Sidhant Mohapatra on the top board.
In the girls' section, second seed GK Monnisha had a fine win over Riya Savant to inch closer to the title along with Varshini Valvan who got the better of R Vaishali on the top board.

Monnisha and Varshini have eight points each ahead of tomorrow's final round.
Top Board Results (Round 10)
Boys: Sidhant Mohapatra (7.5) drew IM Murali Karthikeyan (8); FM Aravindh Chithambaram (7) lost to IM Diptayan Ghosh (8); Harsha Bharatkoti (7) lost to B Kumaran (8); FM Rakesh Jena (6.5) lost to Nr Vignesh (7.5); N Krishna Teja (7) drew S Ajay Krishna (7); J Sai Agni Jeevitesh (6) lost to Mohammad Nubairshah Sheikh (7); Rohan Ahuja (6) lost to K Anshuman (7); Al Muthaiah (6.5) drew Nishant Kumar (6.5); A Harikrishnan (6.5) drew Aradhya Garg (6.5); Subhasis Barik (6) lost to FM Mitrabha Guha (7); A Abhishek (5.5) lost to Rajdeep Sarkar (7); P Rahul Srivatshav (6) drew Ap Karthik (6); Kaustuv Kundu (6) drew B Vignesh (6).

Girls: WFM R Vaishali (7) lost to V Varshini (8); Rutuja Bakshi (7) drew WFM M Mahalakshmi (7.5); WCM Riya Savant (6.5) lost to WFM Gk Monnisha (8); R Divya Lakshmi (7) b Sunyasakta Satpathy (6); U Ashwini (7) drew R Dharani Sree (6.5); Asmita Das (6) lost to Smaraki Mohanty (7); Khushi Dharewa (6) lost to C H Meghna (7); Dhanashree Pandit (7) b Divya Garg (6); WFM Arpita Mukherjee (6) lost to R Gayetri (7); Bhagya Jayesh (6.5) drew WCM Tejaswini Sagar (6); V Toshali (5.5) lost to Shiny Das (6.5); Chandreyee Hajra (5.5) lost to Hilmi Parveen (6.5); D Meera (5.5) lost to Saloni Sapale (6.5); P Jasper Jothi (6) drew Harshita Guddanti (6); Aishwarya Thorat (5.5) drew Kavya Anigani (5.5).