Anwesh, Swayams on song in u-17 chess Nationals

Anwesh Upadhyaya (5.5) and Swayams Mishra (5) put Orissa in command by occupying the top two places in the open category after the end of sixth round of the 20th National Under-17 Chess Championship at Chakradharpur in Jharkhand today. Fourth seed Anwesh beat S Nitin in the fifth round to take sole lead and then maintained it despite being held to a draw by Swayams in the sixth. Seventh seed Swayams shocked top seed P Shyam Nikil in the fifth to jump to the second spot. After six rounds, he shares the second place with S Nitin and G A Stany. Biswajit Nayak, the third Orissa boy competing in the open category, however, suffered two defeats in the day to slip to the 25th position. In girls’ category, Orissa continued to stuggle with Sunyasakta Satpathy, Aarajita Gochhikar and Smaraki Mohanty occupying 16th, 23rd and 26th spots after the end of sixth round. Orissa results (Round 5): Girls: Aparajita Gochhikar (3) beat Aishwarya (Jhar), Sunyasakta Satpathy (2.5) lost to Devangi Patankar (Mah), Smaraki Mohanty (2.5) beat Tejaswini Sagar (Mah). Boys: Anwesh Upadhyaya (5) beat S Nitin (TN), Swayams Mishra (4.5) beat P Shyam Nikil (TN), Biswajeet Nayak (3) lost to Bebashish Dutta (Asm). Round 6: Girls: S Satpathy (3.5) beat R Karthikeyini (TN), A Gochhikar (3) lost to J Mohana Priya (TN), S Mohanty (2.5) lost to M Poojakanth (TN). Boys: A Upadhyaya (5.5) drew with Swayams Mishra (5), B Nayak (3) lost to Divya Patel (Guj). Pairings (Round 7): Girls: S Satpathy vs Soukhin Pramanik (Jhar), A Gochhikar vs N Hema Priya (TN), Smaraki Mohanty vs Chandreyee Hajra (WB). Boys: A Upadhyaya vs GA Stany (Kar), Swayams Mishra vs S Nitin (TN), B Nayak vs Rishav Mitra (WB).