Srishti, Vedant share Day 2 honours in State U-19 chess

NAGPUR: Nashik’s Vedant Pimpalkhare in the Open and city’s Srishti Pandey in the Girls’ section shared the honours on the second day of the Laxmikant Itkelwar Memorial Maharashtra State U-19 Open and Girls Fide Rating Chess Championship at Naivedhyam Celebration Centre on Wednesday.
In a marathon fourth round battle of the Open category unseeded Vedant utilized his opening advantage with the whites to hold second seed Thane’s AGM Krishnater Kushager to a draw.All other rated masters including top seed Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh and seed No 3 Sankalp Gupta recorded contrasting victories. At the end of fourth round, both Nubairshah and Sankalp share the top spot with full four points along with Mahindrakar Indrajeet and Ayush Jugele in the open category.
On the third table, Sankalp outclassed his young Nagpur mate Vaibhav Raut to keep his winning momentum going while fourth seed Indrajeet Mahindrakar, despite playing with the black bits, defeated Ashutosh Dalal. On the following board, Ayush Jugele got the better of young Spandan Seth for full points.
In contrast in the girls’ section, top seed Srishti Pandey jumped to sole lead with four points in as many rounds. On the top board battle, Srishti made most of her opening advantage with the white pieces to get the better of her city mate Narayani Adane.
On the second board, seed No 7 Tanya Pandey defended well with the black pieces to surprise fifth seed Aditi Patel. With this surprising win, Tanya is closely following sole leader Srishti.
Results (Round 4)
Open: Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (4) bt Devansh Ratti (3), Vedant Pimpalkhare (3.5) drew with AGM Krishnater Kushager (3.5), Sankalp Gupta (4) bt Vaibhav Jayant Raut (3), Dalal Ashutosh (3) lost to Mahindrakar Indrajeet (4), Ayush Jugele (4) bt Spandan P Seth (3), Sivasubramanian R (3) drew with Kapadi Yash (3), Om Vinay Vitalkar (2.5) lost to WFM Divya Deshmukh (3), Tayade Vivek (2) lost to Gaurav Rajesh Zagade (3), Chavan Nameet (3) bt Kohad Dipesh (2), Shinde Rujul (2) lost to Nagare Akhilesh (3), Prerak Darvekar (2) lost to Patodi Samyak (3).
Girls: Srishti Pandey (4) bt Adane Narayani (3), Patel Aditi (3) lost to Tanya Pandey (3.5), Dnynadha N Vitalkar (2) lost to WCM Mrudul Dehankar (3), Thakare Seeya (2.5) drew with Deodhar Vrushali (2.5), Mhetre Shravani (2) lost to Ashar Grishma (3), Mahajan Mokshada (2) lost to Rathi Dhanashree (3), Patil Aditi (1.5), lost to Dalal Aashi (3), Sharanya Adane (1.5) lost to Pagay Shalaka (2.5); Wairagade Rashi (1.5) lost to Gayatri Panbude (2.5).