Anwesh one step away from u-17 National chess title

Orissa’s Anwesh Upadhyaya inched closer to the title with a draw against K Priyadarshan in the 10th round of the 20th National Under-17 Chess Championship at Chakradharpur in Jharkhand today. Fourth seed Anwesh remains the sole leader in the open category with 8.5 points and would meet CH Mehar Chinna Reddy in the last round on Wednesday. Orissa also stayed on course for a one-two finish as Swayams (8) drew his 10th game with CH Mehar Chinna Reddy to share the second place with S Nitin of Tamil Nadu. Biswajit Nayak, the third Orissa boy in open category, also settled for a draw to occupy the 14th place with six points. In the girls’ category, Orissa’s Sunyasakta Satpathy posted win in the 10th round to jump from 11th to sixth position with 6.5 points in her kitty. Her statemates Aparajita Gochhikar and Smaraki Mohanty experienced contrasting results to occupy the 16th and 23rd positions respectively. Orissa results (Round 10): Boys: Anwesh Upadhyaya (8.5) drew with K Priyadarshan (TN), Swayams Mishra (8) drew with CH Mehar Chinna Reddy (AP), Biswajeet Nayak (6) drew with Himal Gusain (Chand). Girls: Sunyasakta Satpathy (6.5) beat Rama Kumari (Jhar), Aparajita Gochhikar (5.5) drew with A Akshaya (TN), Smaraki Mohanty (5) lost to J Mohana Priya (TN). Pairings (Round 11): Boys: A Upadhyaya vs CH Mehar Chinna Reddy (AP), Swayams Mishra vs K Priyadarshan (TN), B Nayak vs Rakesh Kulkarni (Mah). Girls: S Satpathy vs Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa), A Gochhikar vs Sonia Deshmukh (Mah), Smaraki Mohanty vs Riya Savant (Goa).