Indians inched closer to titles, registering wins on most boards in the fourth round of the ongoing Asian Youth Chess championship in Kozikhode on Tuesday.

Budding Indian masters, Srinath N and Omkar Sanjay Davate shared the top spot with 3.5 points in the Under-10 boys' category. However, in the other two sections, the Vietnamese offered considerable resistance to share the first place with the hosts.

Top seed Rohit G and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam emerged joint leaders with four points each in the Under-14 boys' section while Sandeep Y and Narayanan K, with 3.5 points each, shared the first place along with Vietnam lad Le Quang Liem in the Under-12 boys' category.

However, India stamped their authority in all the categories of the girls' section, with Lakshmi Sahiti P, Lakshmi Praneetha and Rajasurya registering convincing wins to end with four points each and emerge as the sole leaders in their respective categories --Under-10, Under-12 and Under-14.

Overnight leader Toufighi Tamijani Ho, seeded 29th, who carved out marvellous victories in his last three encounters in the Under-14 boys' category, tasted his first defeat at the hands of Rohit. The Indian lad ended Iranian's winning streak with a victory in 57 moves on the top board.

Top seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam took 52 moves to push his Indian rival Prachura P P to the second spot in the Under-12 boys' category. Besides Le, Narayanan K and Sandeep Y also scored wins against Karthikeyan S and Yuzvendra S Chahal, respectively.

In the Under-10 boys' section, Omkar Sanjay Davate, seeded 21st, crushed Koohestani Md Azad S of Iran in 55 moves on the second board. Davate shared the first position with second seed and compatriot Srinath N, who held defending champion Parimarajan Negi to a draw.

UNI