SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, April 4: Aditi Raj of Ranchi and Pragya Bhardwaj of East Singhbhum districts emerged joint leaders after completion of the second round in the girls’ match of the Jharkhand state under-14 chess championship being played at JRD Sports Complex, Jamshedpur.
However, in the boys’ under-14 category, Abhash of Hazaribagh created a minor setback by holding the top seed Archit Mittal of Dhanbad to a draw in the second round.
In another match, Kunj Kumar of East Singhbhum held Kaushik Kumar of Saraikela-Kharsawan to a draw in the second round too. Five players- Debanjan Sinha, Harsh Kumar Jha, Souryadipta Sarkar (all from ESDCA), Krishna Kumar Saw of Dhanbad and the runner up of yesterday concluded U-12 State Championship, Abhiraj De of Ranchi are sharing the top slot with a score of two points each.
The final round will be played in the late evening today.
Three players, including the top two seeds, Niharika Chakraborty of Ranchi and Navieka Jaiswal of East Singhbhum along with Vriddhi Agarwal of ESDCA are sharing the lead with two points each. The winner of the under-8 category, Dishita Dey lost to the top seed Niharika in round two.
There is a four-way lead with 2 points each in the Open Section of under-10 which appears to be a cakewalk for only rated participants in the section, Adhiraj Mitra of ESDCA. Adhiraj is sharing the lead with three of their teammates Nischay Sing Rana, Arjit Ghosh, and Kabir Kedia all have two points to their kitty.
Under – 8 Girls:
Dishita Dey and Anishka had equal points (5). In the tie-breaker game, Dishita playing Black pieces defeated Anishka.
Under – 8 Open:
Rishi Raj of Ranchi emerged champion by scoring 5 points from as many rounds, Mayan Jha (4 points) of ESDCA pushed Aadish Karna of Saraikela Kharsawan to third place as Adish found himself half a point less than Mayan.
Under – 12 Girls:
East Singhbhum girl Navieka Jaiswal started as the third seed and emerged as the leader with 5 points. Saara finished the second round with 4 points. Samriddhi Majumdar got the third spot.
Under – 12 Open:
Adhiraj Mitra of ESDCA lost to Abhiraj De of Ranchi district. Abhiraj finished second and. Souryadipta could manage 3rd place in the standings.
