Padmini bounces back to 2nd position

Orissa WIM Padmini Rout regained the second position with win over S Harini in the eighth round of the 24th National Junior Girls Chess Championship at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai today. Asian junior champion Padmini now has 6.5 points and trails sole leader Bhakti Kulkarni by one point. But WIM Padmini’s statemate Aparajita Gochhikar and Adyasha Patnaik suffered defeats in the eighth round. In the 39th National Junior Boys Championship, being played simultaneously, Anwesh Upadhyaya registered his third win in a row to climb up to joint third position with six points. Among other three Orissa boys, Utkal Ranjan Sahoo posted win, while Swayams Mishra and Biswajeet Nayak tasted defeats. Orissa results (Round 8): Girls: Padmini Rout (6.5) beat S Harini (TN), Aparajita Gochhikar (5) lost to C H Sevetha (TN), Adyasha Patnaik (3) lost to Aishwarya (Jha). Boys: Anwesh Upadhyaya (6) beat R Premnath (TN), Swayams Mishra (5) lost to G A Stany (Kar), Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (5) beat RK Shiva Murugan (TN), Biswajeet Nayak (3.5) lost to Vasantha Ruba Varman (TN). Pairings (Round 9): Girls: P Rout vs Shalmali Gagare (Mah), A Gochhikar vs M Khushboo (TN), A Patnaik vs Surbhi Kumari (Bih). Boys: A Upadhyaya vs Nikil P Shyam (TN), S Mishra vs G Akash (TN), U R Sahoo vs S L Narayanan (Ker), B Nayak vs Sunny Bedi (Raj).