Bhakti wins with round to spare; Keen tussle in boys section

Chennai: Bhakti Kulkarni assured herself the girls` title with a round to spare while untitled Swapnil S Dhopade and Anwesh Upadhdyaya surprised their IM rivals to share the lead in boys` section after the 10th and penultimate round of the national junior chess championship here today. Goan Bakhti, runner up at recent National Challengers in Nagpur and a Gold medallist in 2006 Mumbai Commonwealth Championship, outplayed Mitali Madhukar Patil of Maharashtra with some deceptive maneuvers in the middle game. The Goan`s gamble paid when Mitali blundered an exchange on the 35th move to be checkmated on the 49th move. Bhakti has scored an unassailable 9.5 points out of 10 rounds. Her nearest rivals WIM Padmini Rout of Orissa and Savetha of TN shared the second spot with eight points apiece after beating Nandhidhaa and Shalmali Gagare respectively. But the boys section is interestingly poised with Maharashtra`s Dhopade and Upadhyaya of Orissa sharing the lead with eight points apiece, closely followed by IMs Shyam Sundar, Narayanan Srinath, S P Sethuraman, norm holders Arun Karthik and Ramnath Bhuvanesh (all Tamil Nadu) with 7.5 points each. In the boys 10th round, overnight sole leader IM Sethuraman was shocked by Dhopade while defending champion IM Lalith Babu of Andhra Pradesh was surprised by Upadhyaya. Sethuraman, opting for the Queens Indian defense from the black side, tried to steer the game into unclear path by sacrificing two pieces for a rook on the 17th move. The resultant endgame was skillfully conducted by Swapnil who won another pawn and forked his opponent`s rook to score a crucial victory in 93 moves. Upadhdyaya on the other hand played a splendid game to hand over Babu his second successive defeat. Choosing a risky strategy from the black side of Semi Slav Moscow variation, Upadhyaya won an exchange of a rook for bishop on the 30th move. Thereafter, he never allowed white to counter attack and won a piece and the game in 43 moves. Bureau Report