By IANS
New Delhi : Top seed and National ‘A’ qualifier Vidit Santosh Gujarathi and Karnatka lad Gahan M.G posted impressive seventh round victories Wednesday to share the lead at the Parsvnath National Under-13 Chess Championship at the Bapu Samaj Sewa Kendra here Wednesday.
Playing with white, Vidit opted to play the Catalan System against the second seeded Prasanna Rao and maintained a good tempo through the opening stages. Wilting under the relentless pressure, Prasanna Rao over looked a pawn move in the middle game and lost his knight for a pawn. Pouncing on that decisive advantage, Vidit went on to seal the match in 51 moves.
Gahan continued his impressive form in this championship by defeating Anurag Mhamal of Goa in a long drawn out battle lasting 86 moves. He now shares the lead with the defending champion Vidit at 6.5 points.
These two players are being closely tailed by pack of four players, Ankit Rajpara of Gujarat, Lokesh. P of Tamil Nadu, Das Sayantan of West Bengal and Vishwanath Prasad of Andhrapradesh, all of whom have got six points each.
In a difficult round for the local Delhi lads, Prince Bajaj had to settle for another draw against Girish Koushik of Karnataka, while Vaibhav Suri signed the peace treaty against former world under-12 world champion Narayanan Srinath.
Earlier in the sixth round Vidit, Prasanna and Gahan earned full points by defeating Abhilash Reddy, D. Yashas and Pranav Shetty respectively.
Round VII (Important Results): Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (6.5) of Mahrashtra beat Prasanna Rao (5.5) of Maharshtra, Anurag Mhamal (5) lost to Gahan M G ( 6.5) of Karnataka, Ankit R Rajpara (6) of Gujarat beat Antonio Viani D’Cunha (5) of Karnataka, Girish A Koushik (5.5) of Karnataka drew with Prince Bajaj (5.5) of Delhi, Nihal Manjunath (5) of Karnataka lost to Lokesh P (6) of Tamil Nadu, Das Sayantan (6) of West Bengal beat Deepthamesh Reddy (5) of Andhra Pradesh, Hari Hara Sudhan (5) of Tamil Nadu lost to Vishwanath Prasad (6) of Andhra Pradesh, Narayanan Srinath (5) drew with Vaibhav Suri (5) of Delhi, Fenil Shah (5) of Gujarat drew with Shaik Abdul Azeez (5) of Andhra Pradesh, Pranav Shetty ( 5.5) beat Manigandan S S (4.5) of Tamil Nadu.