Eesha maintains sole lead

Top seeded International Woman Master Eesha Karvade of Maharashtra continued to maintain sole lead with 4.5 points, leaving five others half a point behind in joint second place in the 19th National Junior girls' chess championship in Kozhikode on Friday.

Second seed IWM Tania Sachdev of Delhi had to settle for yet another draw and is one point behind the leader.

On the top board, Eesha, playing white, settled for a draw with state mate and third seed Kruttika Nadig after 25 moves.

Ramya Krishna of Andhra Pradesh prolonged her game against Tania to 69 moves before splitting the point as also did Soumya Swaminathan of Maharashtra against Iswarya Shobana (GLDN) in 48 moves.

For defending champion and seventh seed N Raghavi of Tamil Nadu, the going continued to be tough as she suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Lakshmy Praneetha (CCA).

Kruttika, Saheli Nath (WB), Lakshmy, P Sivasankari and Nabeela Farheen (all TN) are in second spot.

Important results: Eesha Karvade (Mah) 4.5 drew with Kruttika Nadig (Mah) 4, Ramya Krishna (AP) 3.5 drew with Tania Sachdev (Del) 3.5, S Swaminathan (Mah) 3.5 drew with I Shobana (GLDN) 3.5, H Sowmya (ACA) 3 lost to Saheli Nath (WB) 4, N Raghavi (TN) 3 lost to Lakshmy Praneetha (CCA) 4, Saba Aziz Mhate (Mah) 3 lost to P Sivasankari (TN) 4, Nabeela Farheen (TN) 4 bt Supriya Maji (WB) 3, Nimmy George (Ker) 3.5 bt Sneha Ghatpande (Mah) 3, Amruta Mokal (Mah) 3.5 bt Alka Das (Jha) 2.5, Anjanaa Sowjanya (Capa) 2.5 lost to K M Mohanty (Ori) 3.5.