By IANS
New Delhi : Top players struggled to win as four of the top six games ended in stalemates in the Parsvnath 21st National Under-13 Chess Championship here Tuesday.
At the top board, top seed Vidit Santosh Gujarathi was held to a draw by Andhra Pradesh’s Vishawanth Prasad.
Playing the Nimzo Indian Defence with white pieces, Vidit tried hard to break the defences of hard nut Vishwanath, rated 300 points below him. With no way of forcing a result, the two players decided to sign the peace treaty after playing just 17 moves.
The second board between Prasanna Rao, the second seed and the Asian under-12 bronze medallist, and Gahan M.G. of Karnatka also deadlocked.
In a game in which Scotch game was employed, Rao, playing with black pieces, offered a draw in the 28th move after failing to spot a winning continuation. His lower rated opponent gleefully accepted the offer.
The other seeds had much easier games.
Ankit R. Rajpara of Gujarat overcame fourth-round hero Tejas Ravichandran of Tamil Nadu and Pranav Shetty defeated his Maharashtra state-mate Patil Pratik without much of a struggle.
It was a mixed day for the hosts as local favourite, Commonwealth Gold medallist Vaibhav Suri, was humbled by Karnataka’s Girish A. Koushik.
On the other hand, world under-10 bronze medallist Prince Bajaj came back strongly after two draws and earned himself a full point by defeating Eshwanth Dev Kumar of Tamil Nadu.
Important Results of Round 5: Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (4.5 points) drew Vishwanth Prasad (4.5) of Andhra Pradesh; Gahan M.G. (4.5) of Karnatka drew Prasanna Rao (4.5) of Maharashtra; Ankit R. Rajpara (4.5) of Gujarat bt Tejas Ravichandran (4) of Tamil Nadu; Fenil Shah (4) of Gujarat drew Deepthamesh Reddy (4) of Andhra Pradesh; Pranav Shetty (4.5) of Maharshtra bt Patil Pratik (3.5) of Maharshtra; Das Sayantan (4) of West Bengal drew Anurag Mhamal (4) of Goa; Girish A. Koushik (4.5) of Karnataka bt Vaibhav Suri (3.5) of Delhi; Abhilash Reddy (4.5) of Andhra Pradesh bt Manigandan S.S. (3.5) of Tamil Nadu; Yashas (4.5) of Karnataka bt Adith Jagadish (3.5) of Karnataka; Sai Manivannan (3.5) of Tamilnadu lost to Lokesh P. (4.5) of Tamil Nadu; Naryanan Srinath (4) of Tamil Nadu bt Shaati Majumder (3) of West Bengal; Jaswant G. (3.5) of Tamil Nadu drew K. Vijaya Kanth (3.5) of Andhra Pradesh