Chess kids inch closer to u-11 National medals

Orissa youngsters stayed on course for medals in the 23rd National Under-11 Chess Championship, registering six wins, two defeats and five draws in the ninth round at Shivamogga (Karnataka) today. In the boys section, second seed Sidhanth Mohapatra and Rakesh Kumar Jena (7 points each) shared the second place with five others. Lower-ranked Rakesh continued his impressive run with another win, while Sidhant settled for a draw. Girls’ top seed Sunyasakta Satpathy (7) shared the second place with two others. She next meets statemate Akankhya Kabi, who posted another unexpected victory to jointly occupy the third place with 6.5 points. Goa WCM Ivana Maria Furtado remained the sole leader with eight points. Orissa results (Round 9): Boys: Sidhant Mohapatra (7) drew with Shaikh Nubairshah (Mah), Rakesh Kumar Jena (7) bt Hetul Shah (Guj), Chinmay Routray (6) drew with Hemanth Kumar (AP), Bhaskar Sri Viswaroopanand (5) lost to Shivam Chandak (Guj), Soumen Amlan (4.5) drew with S Vasishta (Kar), Mohit Sahoo (4.5) drew with S Ajay Krishna (TN). Girls: Sunyasakta Satpathy (7) bt S Priyanka (AP), Akankhya Kabi (6.5) bt Tejaswini Sagar (Mah), Smaraki Mohanty (5.5) drew with V Varshini (TN), Adyasha Pattnaik (5) bt Nishtha Chandaliya (Raj), Sribrinda Rout (5) lost to K Rakshana (TN), Pooja Senapati (4.5) bt A Ajitha (Pud), Subhashree Priyadarshini (3.5) bt Radhika Shetty (Kar).