Luke Mendonca of Goa moved back into the sole lead after registering a crushing win in the ninth round of the National under-9 chess championship here on Monday.
Mendonca came back strongly with the black pieces to pick the white king with a powerful attack using a rook and queen. Sai Pranav’s unconventional opening plan of fianchettoing both bishops failed to work against the forceful play by black after 48 moves.
Mendonca leads with eight points and is followed closely by Mahitosh and Sadhwani on 7.5. Two rounds remain.
Raunak Sadhwani upset top seed Praggnanandhaa in 57 moves by using a back rank trick to win a rook for minor piece earlier on.
Mahitosh accepted a sacrificed rook of Siddhanth and went on to win in 80 moves with good defensive skills and rook-ending skills. Rakshitta and Divya scored round victories to move into the joint lead with eight points from nine games. Gunjal is in third place with 7.5 points. This section is open to more possibilities.
Important results: Ninth round: Open: Sai Pranav (AP) 7 lost to Mendonca (Goa) 8; Praggnanandhaa (TN) 7 lost to Sadhwani (Mah) 6.5; Mahitosh (Odi) 7.5 bt Siddhanth (Mah) 6.5; Adarsh (Del) 7 bt Samip (WB) 6; Bharath (TN) 6 lost to Rudranarayan (Odi) 7.
Girls: Rakshitta (TN) 8 bt Bhagyashree Patil (Mah) 7; Divya (Mah) 8 bt Ayantika Das (WB) 6.5; Ananya (Kar) 6.5 drew with Kaamyaa (Del) 6.5; Swaroopa (Ker) 6 lost to Gunjal (Goa) 7.5; Krisha (Mah) 7 bt Piya (Mah) 6.
