Boys perform better at Asian Youth Chess

Orissa boys put up good performance in the open categories of the Asian Youth Chess Championship at New Delhi today. IM elect Debashis Das returned to winning ways in the under-18 category, defeating Shreyansh Daklia in the fourth round. He now shares the second place with three points. In the under-12 boys group, Sidhant Mohapatra experienced mixed luck as he beat Shynggyskhan Serakbay (Kazakhstan) in the fourth round and then went down to Vietnam FM Minh Tran Tuan in the fifth. He now has 2.5 points. Under-14 second seed Utkal Ranjan Sahu improved his vulnerable position by holding to Ariunbold Bachulunn (Mongolia) in the fourth and defeating Maskat Akunov (Kirgizstan) in the next game. He now has two points. Sankalp Baliarsingh, the fourth Orissa player, posted successive wins over NPGS Lahiru and HNLB Haputhanthri (both Sri Lanka) to increase his tally to three points.