Varshini jumps to lone lead, Murali static

IM Murali Karthikeyan eked out a tense draw against B Kumaran to hold his slender lead after the ninth round of the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship here today.
Karthikeyan was the sole leader with 7.5 points, while Kumaran, top seed IM Diptayan Ghosh, Sidhant Mohapatra, Arvindh Chithambaram and Harsha Bharathakoti remained joint second half a point adrift.
There was a major upset in the girls section as unfancied Riya Savant (6.5) of Goa stunned top seed and overnight leader WFM M Mahalakshmi (7), enabling V Varshini snatch the sole lead with 7.5 points.
Having outwitted second seed G K Monnisha earlier, Varshini kept her winning run as she defeated Shiny Das to take the lead.

WFM Monnisha meanwhile beat C H Meghna to be on the joint second position with the top seed Mahalakshmi with 7 each.
Results (Round 9)
Boys: B Kumaran (7) drew IM Murali Karthikeyan (7.5); IM Diptayan Ghosh (7) drew Sidhant Mohapatra (7); Mohammad Nubairshah Sheikh (6) lost to FM Aravindh Chithambaram (7); Nr Vignesh (6) lost to Pranav Vijay (7); Al Muthaiah (6) lost to Harsha Bharathakoti (7); K Anshuman (6) lost to N Krishna Teja (6.5); Nr Visakh (6.5) b Abhishek A (5.5); Karthik (5.5) lost to Ajay Krishna S (6.5); Ritviz Parab (6.5) b Audi Ameya (5.5); Rajdeep Sarkar (6) drew Rohan Ahuja (6); Naik Rishubh Naresh (6.5) b M Satvik (5.5); Koustav Chatterjee (5.5) lost to FM Rakesh Kumar Jena (6.5); Nishant Kumar (6) b V Pranavananda (5); A Visveshwar (5) lost to Aradhya Garg (6); FM Mitrabha Guha (6) b Raghav Srivathsav V (5).

Girls: WFM M Mahalakshmi (7) lost to WCM Riya Savant (6.5); Shiny Das (5.5) lost to Varshini V (7.5); WFM Gk Monnisha (7) b C H Meghna (6); D Meera (5.5) lost to WFM R Vaishali (6.5); Divya Garg (6.5) drew Ashwini U (6); Saloni Sapale (6) drew Rutuja Bakshi (6); Smaraki Mohanty (6) drew Dhanashree Pandit (6); Bhagya Jayesh (6) drew WFM Arpita Mukherjee (6); R Divya Lakshmi (6) b Chandreyee Hajra (5.5); Sunyasakta Satpathy (6) b G Abirama Srinithi (5); Kavya Anigani (5) lost to Asmita Das (6); R Gayetri (6) b Potluri Saye Srreezza (5); Harshita Guddanti (5.5) drew V Toshali (5.5); Sharmishtha Sharma (5) lost to Khushi Dharewa (6); R Dharani Sree (6) b Aishwarya Thorat (5).