Harsh, Mahalakshmi maintain lead

Maintaining his winning streak, International Master Harsh Bharatkhothi of Telangana led with 8.5 points at the end of the ninth round of Khadi India 47th National Junior Chess Championship today.
In girls section, WIM M Mahalakshmi of Tamil Nadu too maintained the lead by defeating Tarini Goyal of Chandigarh at the Patliputra Sport Complex here.
Fide Master Kartik Venketraman of AP (8 points) and Chitlange Sakchi of Maharashtra (7.4 points) were placed second in the boys and girls sections respectively.
Playing on the top board against V Pranavananda of AP, Harsh began with English opening which got transformed into something like Accelerated Dragon position.

Nanda's decision to castle on the queen side proved suicidal as his king came in the firing line of double bishop, a knight, and the queen along the semi-open b file.
Harsh demonstrated his attacking skill to checkmate Nanda in just 25 moves.

On the second board, Fide Master Kartik Venketraman responded to his rival Harshal Shahi's Sicilian defence by exchange of queens early in the game. Shahil made a series of positional and tactical mistakes allowing an exchange sacrifice that cost him a piece.
Karthik won the match in 20 moves to maintain his second position in the event.

The game on the third board between IM Siddhath Mohapatra of Odisha and FM Mitrabha Guha of Bengal was a Caro-Kann exchange variation.
Playing white, Mohapatra launched a fierce attack against his adversary and drew the game with perpetual checks.
Hemant Ram of TN managed to draw his game with IM Krishna Teja of AP in a game of Sicilian Dragon. Although he compelled Hemant to give up queen for a pair of rooks but Teja could not convert the advantage into a win and drew.
Leader Mahalakshmi defeated WFM Tarini Goyal of Chandigarh. Mahalakshmi, playing white, chose not to allow any gambit play in her d4opening. Handling the Catalan variation well, she encashed an opportunity to win Tarini's knight by eliminating its support, the bishop with her rook.

WIM Sakshi Chitlange of Maharashtra and Nityata Jain of MP fought keenly in a game of Caro-Kann. Sakshi showed her strength by attacking on Nityata castled king. Her beautiful sacrifice of a knight exposed stripped bare her rival's king.
She won the game with ease to score 7.5 points at the end of ninth round.