Priyanka Kumari in Jamshedpur on Wednesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur: Kaushalendra Kumar of AMV, Chapra, has emerged as a sole leader with 7.5 points at the end of the eighth round of The Telegraph Schools Chess being played here at the JRD Tata Sports Complex, Jamshedpur on Wednesday. He is closely followed by Priyanka Kumari of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Chakradharpur with seven points.

On the top board Kaushalendra Kumar played the Sicilian Sveshnikov variation of Sicilian Defence in reply to Ankit Kumar Singh’s (DAV, NIT) King Pawn opening. The position was almost equal till they reach the Rook and Pawn ending in which Ankit was having few minutes to complete the game. Although Ankit got the winning position but he crossed the time limit to lose the game.

Priyanka Kumari of Kendriya Vidyalaya defeated her schoolmate Satyabrata Barik without much difficulty to take herself to the second spot.

On board 3, Saumitra Verma (DPS, Patna) played the Kings pawn opening against Smriti Shyamal (DAV, NIT) and obtained a better position due to Smriti’s irregular plan, later Smriti played precisely and forced a draw by perpetual check on 25th move. Top seed Rama Kumari (Kendriya Vidyalya, Chakradharpur) exploited Dilshad Alams (Kasidih High School) poor opening knowledge to get a huge development advantage to launch a fierce attack on the king, caught in the centre. Rama checkmated Dilshad on 25th move.

RESULTS

ROUND VII: Kaushalendra Kumar (6.5) bt Kumar Sanu (5.5); Ankit Kumar Singh (6) drew with Priyanka Kumari (6); Abhinav Prateek (5.5) drew with Rama Kumari (5.5); Smriti Shyamal (6) bt Kumar Abhinav (5); Shovan Pramanick (5.5) drew with Rishi Shankar (5.5); Satyabrata Barik (6) bt S. Seetharaman (5); Niharika Jha (5) lost to Saumitra Verma (6); Dilshad Alam (6) bt Somesh Dutta (5); Shashank Mohit (5) lost to Bishnupriya Bala (5.5); Barsha Mukherjee (5.5) bt Saikat Dutta (4.5). ROUND VIII: Ankit Kumar Singh (6) lost to Kaushalendra Kumar (7.5); Priyanka Kumari (7) bt Satyabrata Barik (6); Saumitra Verma (6.5) drew with Smriti Shyamal (6.5); Rama Kumari (6.5) bt Dilshad Alam (6); Kumar Sanu (6) drew with Kaushik Das (6); Bishnupriya Bala (6.5) bt Abhinav Prateek (5.5); Anup Kumar (5.5) lost to Barsha Mukherjee (6.5); Ankur (6.5) bt Soukhin Pramanick (5.5); A Naveen (5.5) lost to Rishi Shankar (6.5); Neelesh Shankar (6.5) bt Shovan Pramanick (5.5).