Ajay maintains sole lead and Divya becomes champion with a round to spare in National Sub-Junior 2018

by Shahid Ahmed - 25/07/2018

Ajay Karthikeyan of Tamil Nadu continues his dream run and maintains half point lead heading into the final round. He will face the defending champion Sankalp Gupta in the last round of the tournament. In the girls section, Divya Deshmukh won the National Championship for second year in a row and this time with a round to spare. While the open category is still open for anyone to win, in the girls category there is a close fight for second position as eight girls are at 7.5 points each, followed by five girls at 7. We bring you games, positions and photographs from round 8 and 9 of the 44th National Sub-Junior Open and 35th National Sub Junior Girls 2018. Photos: Swati Biswas

Ajay Karthikeyan stays ahead of the pack and Divya Deshmukh emphatically wins National Sub-Junior for second consecutive year

Little did they know that photograph is not the only thing they have to share in the penultimate round | Photo: Swati Biswas

Both Utsab and Ajay tried to push to gain the upper hand, but no one budged to give any chance to their opponent in Sicilian Maroczy Bind.

Sankalp and Aronyak made a quick draw | Photo: Swati Biswas

Sankalp and Aronyak made a threefold repetition in 30 moves in a seemingly equal position arising out of Caro-Kann Advance variation.

Top seed Koustav Chatterjee got the better of Soham Kamotra | Photo: Swati Biswas

Koustav maximized Soham's mistake by playing the correct continuation here. Find out how.

L Srihari made quick work of Shuban Saha in just 29 moves in English Opening | Photo: Swati Biswas

Shuban played 21...Ng5. Find out how did Srihari capitalize here.

Birthday girl Bristy Mukherjee did not get the gift she wanted as her opponent, defending champion Divya provided stiff competition | Photo: Swati Biswas

Despite getting an early opportunity to capitalize against Divya, Bristy was unable to seize it and eventually fell into tactical error after she tried to equalize pawns using tactics.

Bristy failed to capitalize an early opportunity when she played 15.c3. What did she miss?

Salonika managed to beat Adane but she survived a scare when Adane missed a golden opportunity as she played here 32...gxf2. Can you find the correct continuation here for Black?

Poorna Sri M K of Tamil Nadu defeated Bhagyashree Patil of Maharashtra with a devastating attack in Sicilian Najdorf

Ajay and Divya win their respective matches and get into sole lead at the conclusion of round 9

Ajay made a quick work of Soham when he found the correct idea here. Can you find it?

Divya played the correct move and she managed to win it. Can you find the best continuation for white here?

Photo Gallery:

The Arbiters's team | Photo: Swati Biswas

Birthday girl Bristy Mukherjee with IA Rajendra Shidore and IA Debasish Barua | Photo: Swati Biswas

The tournament hall | Photo: Swati Biswas

The place is full of greenery... | Photo: Swati Biswas

...where the parents wait for their ward happily | Photo: Swati Biswas

Top board results in open category

Round 10 on 2018/07/24 at 11:00 AM

Bo.	No.		Name	Gr	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Gr	Rtg	No.
1	11		Utsab Chatterjee		2094	7½	½ - ½	8		Ajay Karthikeyan		2094	10
2	2		Sankalp Gupta		2341	7½	½ - ½	7½	CM	Aronyak Ghosh		2310	3
3	12		Soham Kamotra		2065	7	0 - 1	7		Koustav Chatterjee		2383	1
4	22		Srihari L		1927	7	1 - 0	7		Shuban Saha		1966	15
5	37		Jayachandra Srinivas Vellanki		1840	7	½ - ½	6½	CM	Mendonca Leon Luke		2241	7
6	4	CM	Kushagra Mohan		2309	6½	1 - 0	6½		Jagadish P		1867	33
7	30		Esshan Wadhawan		1877	6½	½ - ½	6½		Harshavardhan G B		2194	8
8	35		Ayush Sharma		1847	6½	½ - ½	6½		Arpan Das (Jr)		1981	13
9	39		Yutesh P		1824	6½	½ - ½	6½		Mehta Naitik R		1960	17
10	41		Karthik Sai Ch		1810	6½	1 - 0	6½		Sanjay D G		1921	23

Top board results in Girls category

Round 10 on 2018/07/24 at 11.00 AM

Bo.	No.		Name	Gr	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Gr	Rtg	No.
1	9	WCM	Bristy Mukherjee		1768	7	0 - 1	8	WFM	Divya Deshmukh		2203	1
2	5	WCM	Jyothsna L		1923	7	½ - ½	7	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar		2093	3
3	12	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya		1734	7	½ - ½	7		Meenatchi Rajam V		1560	29
4	2	WFM	Salonika Saina		2113	6½	1 - 0	6½		Adane Narayani		1726	13
5	15		Poorna Sri M.K		1715	6½	1 - 0	6½		Bhagyashree Patil		1836	6
6	16		Routray Priyanka		1683	6½	0 - 1	6½		Eesha Ajay Sarda		1830	7
7	17		Achaya Vijayan		1676	6½	0 - 1	6½	WFM	Lakshmi C		1805	8
8	4	WCM	Jain Nityata		1945	6	1 - 0	6	WCM	Chinnam Vyshnavi		1577	26
9	22		Mehendi Sil		1601	6	1 - 0	6		Savitha Shri B		1742	11
10	24		Sudipa Haldar		1589	6	1 - 0	6		Nanditha V		1726	14

Final round pairings in open category

Round 11 on 2018/07/25 at 10:00AM

Bo.	No.		Name	Gr	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Gr	Rtg	No.
1	10		Ajay Karthikeyan		2094	8½		8		Sankalp Gupta		2341	2
2	22		Srihari L		1927	8		8		Utsab Chatterjee		2094	11
3	1		Koustav Chatterjee		2383	8		7½	CM	Kushagra Mohan		2309	4
4	3	CM	Aronyak Ghosh		2310	8		7½		Jayachandra Srinivas Vellanki		1840	37
5	66		Atri Chattopadhyay		1681	7½		7½		Karthik Sai Ch		1810	41
6	57		Tanmay Chopra		1732	7½		7		Moksh Amit Doshi		2261	6
7	32		Jain Kashish Manoj		1868	7		7		Raahul V S		2292	5
8	7	CM	Mendonca Leon Luke		2241	7		7	AGM	Rathneesh R		1948	19
9	8		Harshavardhan G B		2194	7		7		Ayush Sharma		1847	35
10	59		Samdani Sahil Sagar		1713	7		7		Soham Kamotra		2065	12

Final round pairings in girls category

Round 11 on 2018/07/25 at 10.00 AM

Bo.	No.		Name	Gr	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Gr	Rtg	No.
1	1	WFM	Divya Deshmukh		2203	9		7½		Poorna Sri M.K		1715	15
2	3	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar		2093	7½		7½	WFM	Salonika Saina		2113	2
3	7		Eesha Ajay Sarda		1830	7½		7½	WCM	Jyothsna L		1923	5
4	8	WFM	Lakshmi C		1805	7½		7½	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya		1734	12
5	29		Meenatchi Rajam V		1560	7½		7		Mehendi Sil		1601	22
6	4	WCM	Jain Nityata		1945	7		7		Sudipa Haldar		1589	24
7	18		Arushi Kotwal		1662	7		7	WCM	Bristy Mukherjee		1768	9
8	6		Bhagyashree Patil		1836	6½		6½		Diya Chowdhury		1571	28
9	13		Adane Narayani		1726	6½		6½		Kritika Pal		1546	30
10	40		Nayanikaa Muralidharan		1451	6½		6½		Routray Priyanka		1683	16