Anwesh, Swayams keep Orissa on top at U-17 Chess Nationals

Orissa continued to assert supremacy with Anwesh Upadhyaya and Swayams Mishra retaining the top two places after the end of ningh round in the open category of the 20th National Under-17 Chess Championship at Chakradharpur in Jharkhand today. Fourth seed Anwesh led the table with eight points, which included seven wins and two draws. Swayams won his last two games to be placed second with 7.5 points. Biswajit Nayak, the third Orissa boy in open category, increased his tally to 5.5 points with a win and a draw in the last two games. In girls’ category, Sunyasakta Satpathy was highest placed (11th) among three Orissa players with 5.5 points in her account. She was followed at 16th and 21st positions by Aparajita Gochhikar and Smaraki Mohanty respectively with five points each. Orissa results (Round 8 and 9): Boys: Anwesh Upadhyaya (8.5) drew with Samreer Kathmale (Mah), beat Debashish Dutta (Asm): Swayams Mishra (7.5) beat Deepak Katiyar (UP), beat Sameer Kathmale (Mah): Biswajeet Nayak (5.5) beat Roshan Rangarajan (Mah), drew with Bitan Banerjee (WB). Girls: Sunyasakta Satpathy (5.5) beat Pooja Baghel (Chhat), beat Sonia Deshmukh (Mah): Aparajita Gochhikar (5) drew with Soukhin Pramanik (Jhar), drew with Agnihotri Ghosh (WB): Smaraki Mohanty (5) beat with RK Vidyalakshmi Devi (Mani), drew with Soukhin Pramanik (Jhar). Pairings (Round 10): Boys: A Upadhyaya vs K Priyadarshan (TN), Swayams Mishra vs CH Mehar Chinna Reddy (AP), B Nayak vs Himal Gusain (Chand). Girls: S Satpathy vs Rama Kumari (Jhar), A Gochhikar vs A Akshaya (TN), Smaraki Mohanty vs J Mohana Priya (TN).