With three rounds to go, a tense finale awaits at National Sub-Junior 2017

by Niklesh Jain - 08/10/2017

The National Sub Juniors (under-15) is currently in progress at the Rajpath club, Ahmedabad. After eight rounds in the girls section we had Sanskriti Goyal who is leading with a score of 7.0/8, while in the open section it is Koustav Chatterjee. It seemed as if Sanskriti would run away with the tournament with a 7.0/7 start, but Nityata Jain managed to stop her. In both the sections we have a host of players just half a point away from the leaders with 6.5/8, which ensures that the final three rounds will be extremely tense. Report by Niklesh Jain and pictures by Ankit Dalal.

At the Rajpath club in Ahmedabad a total of 108 girls are taking part in the under-15 girls nationals

Nityata Jain (black) was able to get the better of Sanskriti Goyal

Sanskriti Goyal has been in great form in the under-15 nationals as she has notched up one win after another, scoring 7.0/7. In the eighth round, she met her match in the form of Nityata Jain from Madhya Pradesh, who showed excellent understanding in the Nimzo Indian and was able to win the game.

Because of Nityata's win the tournament is now wide open and the one who will showcase better chess, will emerge as the winner in the last three rounds!

Sanskriti Goyal is still in the sole lead by half point and will play Aashna Makhija in the ninth round

Nityata Jain - the girl who ensured that the tournament was not just a one way stream by beating Sanskriti Goyal

After losing to Sanskriti, India's golden girl Divya Deshmukh has made a strong comeback and is on 6.5/8 now

Samridhaa Ghosh, who is on 6.5/8, will play against Nityata Jain in the ninth round

The girl who has won a lot of medals for India at national and international level Saina Salonika will play against Divya Deshmukh

Ninth round at 14.00 hours

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1		Makhija Aashna	2137	6		7		Sanskriti Goyal	1819	10
2	2	WFM	Divya Deshmukh	2051	6½		6½	WFM	Salonika Saina	2041	3
3	8		Jain Nityata	1842	6½		6½		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1984	5
4	7	WFM	Lakshmi C	1907	6		6	WFM	Tanishka Kotia	1575	24
5	25		Garima Gaurav	1574	6		6	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	1810	11
6	27		Sudipa Haldar	1560	6		6		Rajashree Rajeev	1676	17
7	4		Shanya Mishra	2000	5½		5½		Kaur Palkin	1791	13
8	21		Bhagyashree Patil	1619	5½		5½		Tejasvi M	1823	9
9	12		Srimathi R	1799	5		5½		Mishra Riya	1543	29
10	14		Eesha Ajay Sarda	1747	5		5		Madhani Shilpee	1499	37

Rank after Round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	10		Sanskriti Goyal	IND	1819	UP	7,0	0,0	39,5	43,5
2	2	WFM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2051	MAH	6,5	0,0	42,5	47,0
3	8		Jain Nityata	IND	1842	MP	6,5	0,0	39,5	43,5
4	3	WFM	Salonika Saina	IND	2041	ORI	6,5	0,0	39,0	42,0
5	5		Ghosh Samriddhaa	IND	1984	WES	6,5	0,0	37,5	40,5
6	24	WFM	Tanishka Kotia	IND	1575	HAR	6,0	0,0	34,0	38,0
7	17		Rajashree Rajeev	IND	1676	KER	6,0	0,0	34,0	37,5
8	11	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	IND	1810	AP	6,0	0,0	33,0	36,5
9	7	WFM	Lakshmi C	IND	1907	TN	6,0	0,0	32,5	36,0
10	1		Makhija Aashna	IND	2137	MAH	6,0	0,0	31,5	35,0

Under- 15 Open section

The boys section witnesses the participation of 176 players!

Koustav Chatterjee beat his state mate Neelash Saha in the eighth round and going into the ninth round has the sole lead

Arjun Ergiasi and Aronyak Ghosh played out a draw and with 6.5/8 both are on second position

Arjun Ergiasi won the silver medal at the recently concluded World Youth under-14 in Montevideo Uruguay

Top seed P. Iniyan, who was clearly a favourite to win this tournament, is on 6.0/8 with three rounds to go

Round 9 at 14.00 hours

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8		Moksh Amit Doshi	2222	6½		7		Koustav Chatterjee	2222	7
2	9	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2215	6½		6½	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2354	2
3	10	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	2185	6½		6½		Raahul V S	2153	12
4	19		Neelash Saha	2012	6		6	IM	Iniyan P	2461	1
5	30		Saksham Rautela	1877	6		6		Saurabh Anand	2288	3
6	5		Sankalp Gupta	2244	6		6		Rahul S	2079	13
7	6	CM	Raja Rithvik R	2237	6		6		Banerjee Ashutosh	1802	41
8	44		Manish Anto Cristiano F	1789	6		6		Dileep Kumar R	2182	11
9	4		Anuj Shrivatri	2244	5½		5½		Shyam Prasad Reddy K	1853	35
10	28		Dhanush Ragav	1884	5½		5½		Mehta Naitik R	2039	17

Rank after Round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7		Koustav Chatterjee	U15	IND	2222	WES	7,0	0,0	38,5	42,5
2	2	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	U15	IND	2354	TEL	6,5	0,0	40,0	43,5
3	8		Moksh Amit Doshi	U15	IND	2222	GUJ	6,5	0,0	39,0	43,0
4	10	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	U15	IND	2185	WES	6,5	0,0	37,0	41,0
5	12		Raahul V S	U15	IND	2153	TN	6,5	0,0	36,0	40,0
6	9	CM	Kushagra Mohan	U15	IND	2215	TEL	6,5	0,0	31,5	34,0
7	1	IM	Iniyan P	U15	IND	2461	TN	6,0	0,0	41,0	45,5
8	6	CM	Raja Rithvik R	U15	IND	2237	TEL	6,0	0,0	40,5	44,0
9	19		Neelash Saha	U15	IND	2012	WES	6,0	0,0	39,5	44,0
10	13		Rahul S	U15	IND	2079	TN	6,0	0,0	38,0	41,5

All the pictures in this report have been sent by Ankit Dalal, who is an extremely important part of the ChessBase India family