Narayanan back in sole lead, three share lead in girls section

Grandmaster S L Narayanan defeated Rajdeep Sarkar in the penultimate round to take sole lead in the Asian Junior Chess Championship here today.
Playing white pieces in Semi-Slav game, Narayanan exploited the opening mistake committed by his rival to gain an exchange up and later sealed the match in 36 moves. Other overnight joint leaders, Grandmaster Karthikeyan Murali and Iranian International Master Mousavi Seyed Khalil, signed the peace treaty in 31 moves.
Top seed Aravindh Chithamabaram defeated Arjun Kalyan. Aravindh along with Karthikeyan, Mousavi and Nima Javanbakht of Iran, who defeated Sammed Jaykumar Shete are at number two spot with six points. In final round tomorrow morning, Narayanan will take on Mousavi, while Aravindh and Karthikeyan paired against Javanbakht and Rajdeep Sarkar respectively.

Meanwhile in the girls section, top seed Vaishali along with country mate K Priyanka and Mongolian girl Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh are leading the table. Vaishali signed the peace treaty with Ivan Maria Furtado while Priyanka outwitted Chandreyee Hajra and Uuriintuya beat Balakannamma.
Important Results (Indian otherwise stated):
Open Round 8: GM Karthikeyan Murali (6) drew with IM Mousavi Seyed Khalil of Iran (6); GM SL Narayanan (6.5) beat FM Rajdeep Sarkar (5.5); Arjun Kalayan (5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (6); FM Nima Javanbakht of Iran (6) beat Sammed Jaykumar Shete (5); IM Mosadeghpour Masoud (5.5) beat Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (4.5); Shailesh Dravid (4.5) lost to Harsha Bharathakoti (5.5); Rahul Srivatshav P (5) drew with Srijit Paul (5); Rakesh Kumar Jena (5) drew with Rakesh Kumar Nayak (5); Ankit Gajwa (5) beat Ganesh R (4); Isakzhanov Kelsinbek of Kyrgyzstan (4.5) drew with Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad (4.5).

Girls Round 8: WIM Ivana Maria Furtado (5.5) drew with WFM Vaishali R (6); WCM Chandreyee Hajra (5.5) lost to Priyanka K (6); Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh of Mongolia (6) beat Bala Kannamma P (5); WFM Varshini V (4.5) lost to Harshita Guddanti (5.5); Shweta Gole (4.5) lost to WIM Nandhidhaa P V (5.5); Hamedi Nia Vesal of Iran (5) drew with Priyanka Nutakki (5); Sunyuktha CMN (5) drew with WIM Michelle Catherina (4.5); WIM Sakshi Chitlange (5) beat Akshya Nandakumar (4); Shanya Mishra (5) beat Divya Lakshmi R (4); WCM Ananya Suresh (5) beat Sanskriti Goyal (4).