Ram Arvind and Lakshmi surge ahead

Third seed Lakshmi C of Tamil Nadu surged ahead with a hard-fought victory against overnight sole leader Vantika Agrawal of Delhi in the sixth round of the National Under-11 Girls Chess Championship here today.
Playing with white pieces in a Sicilian Defence game, Lakshmi put enormous pressure on Vantika's defence in the middle game to score the full point.
The crucial victory enabled Lakshmi to take her tally to five and half point put of possible six. A pack of seven players including top seed Priyanka Nutakki occupy the second spot at point table with a drift of half point from the leader at Ludlow Castle Sports Complex.

Meanwhile in the open section, top seed Ram Aravind of Tamilnadu continued his domination and registered his sixth win on the trot as he outwitted Arjun Erigaisi of Andhra Pradesh without much struggle.
Playing white side of Sicilian Defence game, Ram made a tight grip on the proceedings from the start itself to secure full point in 35 moves.
Ram's team mate, fifth seed Prajesh R defeated second seed Saurabh Anand of Bihar in 79 moves to occupy the lone second spot with five and half points.
Earlier in the fifth round, Ram beat Rahul Srivatshav of Andhra Pradesh while Vantika beat Anwesha Mishra of Odisha and Lakshmi split the point with Samriddhaa Ghosh of West Bengal.