Sub-Juniors 01-06: Sanskriti surprises in the Girls' section; three lead among the Boys
Delhi has been organizing several tournaments of importance since the last couple of years. One thing has remained constant — quality. This was probably the first time in recorded history that we saw a women's national premier tournament being organized in a far better manner than the men's event. And this feat was possible because the Delhi Chess Association organized the women's event this time, while the men's event in Lucknow is struggling to stay afloat.
The Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium is hosting the National Sub-Junior Championship 2016 from 20th to 28th November 2016.
FM V.S. Rathanvel (2381) of Tamil Nadu suffered a minor setback when he was held to a draw by Odisha's Manish Kumar (1495). He then won five consecutive games to share the lead with 5.5/6. [Photo: Sa Kannan]
Iniyan P. (2370) had been leading with 5.0/5 but lost to Rathanvel in the sixth round to fall behind.
Rahul Shrivastav (2325) beat young talent Gukesh D. to join Rathanvel at the top with 5.5/6.
FM Mitrabha Guha (2250) had a similar tale — he beat Arjun Erigaisi (2300) to tie at the top with Rathanvel and Shrivastav.
Aged just nine, CM Gukesh D. has a gigantic 2252 for a rating. A fresh future awaits him. In this event, he is on 4.5/6.
Pairings for Round 07:
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | Club/City | No. | ||
| 1 | 2 | FM | Rathanvel V S | 2381 | TN | 5½ | 5½ | Rahul Srivatshav P | 2325 | TEL | 4 | ||
| 2 | 12 | FM | Mitrabha Guha | 2250 | WB | 5½ | 5 | Iniyan P | 2370 | TN | 3 | ||
| 3 | 30 | Pruthu Deshpande | 1991 | MAH | 5 | 5 | FM | Rakesh Kumar Jena | 2310 | ODI | 5 | ||
| 4 | 6 | Harikrishnan.A.Ra | 2310 | TN | 5 | 5 | Neelash Saha | 2061 | WB | 25 | |||
| 5 | 10 | FM | Rajdeep Sarkar | 2274 | WB | 5 | 5 | Mehta Naitik R | 1839 | GUJ | 50 | ||
| 6 | 14 | Jayakumaar S | 2186 | TN | 5 | 5 | Shakthi Vishal J | 1856 | TN | 48 | |||
| 7 | 29 | Dileep Kumar R | 1991 | TN | 4½ | 4½ | IM | Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari | 2444 | KAR | 1 | ||
| 8 | 8 | FM | Nitish Belurkar | 2300 | GOA | 4½ | 4½ | CM | Bharath Subramaniyam H | 1984 | TN | 31 | |
| 9 | 34 | Abhishek T M | 1966 | KER | 4½ | 4½ | CM | Erigaisi Arjun | 2300 | TEL | 9 | ||
| 10 | 11 | CM | Gukesh D | 2252 | AP | 4½ | 4½ | Panesar Vedant | 1882 | MAH | 42 |
In the girls' section, with 5.5/6, WFM Arpita Mukherjee (2108) is jointly leading with...
...Uttar Pradesh's Sanskriti Goyal (1696), who clearly is the surprise of the event so far with +104 in rating.
Arpita and Sanskriti drew their top board battle in the sixth round.
Pairings for Round 07:
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | Club/City | No. | ||
| 1 | 5 | Harshita Guddanti | 1979 | AP | 5 | 5½ | WFM | Arpita Mukherjee | 2108 | WB | 1 | ||
| 2 | 17 | Sanskriti Goyal | 1696 | UP | 5½ | 5 | Vantika Agrawal | 2051 | DEL | 3 | |||
| 3 | 11 | Toshali V | 1752 | AP | 5 | 4½ | WFM | Bommini Mounika Akshaya | 1729 | AP | 13 | ||
| 4 | 4 | Priyanka K | 2046 | TN | 4½ | 4½ | Archi Agrawal | 1575 | DEL | 29 | |||
| 5 | 6 | WFM | Lakshmi C | 1905 | TN | 4½ | 4½ | Garima Gaurav | 1517 | BIH | 34 |
