Sonal emerges sole leader in state U-15 chess championship

NAGPUR: Sonal Mandhana of Nagpur emerged as the sole leader with four points in the girls category after the fourth round in the Laxmikant Itkelwar Memorial Maharashtra State U-15 Open Chess Championship at the Naivedyam Hall on Sunday.
Sonal was closely followed by Khushi Surana, Dhanashree Rathi and Aditi Patel with 3.5 points each. On the top board, Sonal shocked her citymate and better rated Srishti Pandey.Khushi and Dhanashree agreed to a draw. Aditi Patel outwitted Sharanya Adane on the third board.
In the Open group, five players - Fide Master Anand Nadar, Nishit Singh, Vinay Vitalkar, Salil Deogade and Devansh Ratti - are in joint lead with four points each to their credit.
Nadar downed Priyanshu Patil to take his points tally to four. Second seed Nishit prevailed over Vaibhav Raut, while Om defeated Sai Shravan. City lad Salil Deogade got the better of Vinit Dhoot.
RESULTS (Round 4)
Girls: Sonal Mandhana (4) bt Srishti Pandey (3), Khushi Surana (3.5) drew with Dhanashree Rathi (3.5), Aditi Patel (3.5) bt Sharanya Adane (2.5), Shalaka Pagay (3) drew with Eesha Sarda (2.5), Tanya Pandey (2.5) drew with Anushka Kohle (2.5), Purti Aurangabadkar (2) lost to Dnynadha Vitalkar (3), Ritika Deshpande (2.5) drew with Narayani Adane (2.5), Sakshi Lanjewar (2) lost to Anannya Menkudle (3), Isha Inamdar (3) bt Maheshwari Krishna (2), Aditi Patil (3) bt Subhasmitha Sahoo (2).
Boys: Anand Nadar (4) bt Priyanshu Patil (3), Vaibhav Raut (3) lost to Nishit Singh (4), Sai Shravan (3) lost to Om Vitalkar (4), Vinit Dhoot (3) lost to Salil Deogade (4), Devansh Ratti (4) bt Ameya Shrivastava (3), R Sivasubramanian (3.5) drew with Yash Ingolikar (3.5), Sankalp Gupta (3.5) bt Sanil Upasani (3), Roneet Das (3.5) bt Shreyas Sapre (2.5), Ved Joshi (2.5) lost to Yash Dhoke (2.5).