Top seed Vidit and Karnataka's Gahan share the lead

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) Top seed Vidit Santosh Gujarathi and Karnatka's Gahan M G posted impressive seventh round victories today to share the lead in the Parsvnath National Under-13 Chess Championship here today.

Playing with white pieces, Vidit opted to play the Catalan System against the second seeded Prasanna Rao and maintained a good tempo right throughout 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 Gujarati at 6.5 points.

These two players are being closely tailed by pack of four players, namely Ankit R Rajpara of Gujarat, Lokesh P of Tamilnadu, Das Sayantan of West Bengal and Vishwanath Prasad of Andhrapradesh, all of whom have got six points each.

In another 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 Rao and Gahan earned full points by defeating Abhilash Reddy, D Yashas and Pranav Shetty respectively .

UNI