Sakshi, Atharva take sole lead in State U-19 Fide Rating Chess

NAGPUR: World Fide Master (WFM) Sakshi Chitlange of Aurangabad in girls and top seed Atharva Godbole of Pune in boys emerged as sole leaders at the end of Round 8 in the Maharashtra State U-19 Open Fide Rating Chess tournament at Ambedkar College Hall on Sunday.
On the top board, Sakshi prevailed over Tanya Padey in just 39 moves to jump to top spot. Sakshi was closely followed by city chess prodigy Divya Deshmukh with 6.5 points.Nine-year-old Divya was held by Sonal Mandhana in 46 moves. Srishti Pandey outwitted Shalaka Pagay to take her points tally to 5.5.
In the boys section, Atharva downed Prasad Aurangabadkar in 40 movers to jump to sole lead. Nishit Singh was in second position with 7 points.
The ninth and final round will be played on Monday at 9 am followed by the prize distribution function at 1 pm.
Results (Round 8):
Girls: Tanya Pandey (5) lost to Sakshi Chitlange (7), Divya Deshmukh (6.5) drew with Sonal Mandhana (5.5), Shalaka Pagay (4.5) lost to Srishti Pandey (5.5), Mansi Bhumkar (4) lost to Shweta Gole (5.5), Saloni Sapale (5) bt Gurleen Chawla (4), Ismat Chimthanwala (4) lost to Esha Sarda (5), Ananya Gupta (4.5) bt Anushka Kohle (4), Aditi Patil (4.5) bt Vaishnavi Gole (3.5), Narayani Adane (4.5) bt Saloni Patel (3.5), Riddhi Palorkar (4.5) bt Dnyanada Vitalkar (3).
Boys: Prasad Aurangabadkar (6) lost to Atharva Godbole (7.5), Nishit Singh (7) bt Rohit Patil (6), Indrajeet Mahindrakar (6.5) drew with Pruthu Deshpande (6), Suyog Wagh (6.5) bt Anish Gandhi (5.5), Salil Deogade (6) bt Sarvesh Rao (5.5), Sai Shravan R (5) lost to Raunak Sadhwani (6), Saransh Jeswani (5) lost to Hrithvik Gadhiya (6), Shail Pagay (5) lost to Om Vitalkar (6), Manan Dhoke (5) lost to Vaibhav Raut (6), Pavitra Batra (5) lost to Priyanshu Patil (6).