Soumya Swaminathan leads at Nat'l Junior and Girls chess

New Delhi, Aug 27 (UNI) Grandmaster norm holder Abhijeet Gupta of Bharat Petroleum shot into sole lead with a finely crafted victory over Women Grandmaster D Harika of Andhra Pradesh in the 6th round of Parsvnath 35th National Junior Chess Championship here today.

Following his fifth victory in six games, Abhijeet took his tally to 5.5 points out of a possible 6 and took a slender half point lead over nearest seventh contenders including second seed G Rohit of AP, who was held to a draw by G N Gopal of Kerala in this round. Four more rounds remain in this event.

In the 21st edition of Girls' championship being organised simultaneously, defending champion Soumya Swaminathan of Maharashtra maintained her half point lead after settling for a draw with Kruttika Nadig of Karnataka. Soumya, 5.5 points, who won her first five games in the nine-round event so far, conceded her first draw to second seed Nadig and is now half a point adrift of top seed and number two ranked girl in the country Mary Ann Gomes of West Bengal, Padmini Rout of Orissa and Nadig who both have 5 points in their bag.

Abhijeet was in top form against Harika in a Slav defense game.

Playing black, the Bhilwara based showcased his deep opening preparation in one of the side variations and caught Harika off guard.

The AP girl, who has opted to play in the open section, used a lot of time on her clock in the initial phase of the game and that proved vital as the game progressed. Even as the position remained balanced Gupta managed to create some problems for Harika and she fell prey to a positional trap that yielded Abhijeet two connected passed pawns in the center. The rest was child's play for the top seed.

UNI DH KP1940