Despite first defeat in the tournament, R Divya Lakshmi of Chennai continued to lead with 7.5 points in the girls category at the end of the eighth round of the Tamil Nadu State Sub-Junior Chess Championships at Tiruchengode. Ja Gireman of Coimabtore defeated L Barath of Chennai to maintain the lead with 7.5 points in the Open section.
Important Results (9th round, Open): Ja Gireman (Cbe) 7.5 bt L Barath (Bloom) 6½, S Jayakumar (Bloom) 7 bt S Prasannaa (Kan) 6,5, P Iniyan (Ero) 6.5 drew with NR Visakh (Che) 6.5, NR Vignesh (Che) 7 bt Hemanth Raam (Che) 6, M Arvind (Che) 6 drew with P Naren Swaminathan (Che) 6, S Ajay Krishna (Tlr) 5.5 lost to S Kumar (Che) 6.5, ASJ Akil (Mdu) 6.5 bt AL Muthaiah (Tlr) 5, B Kumaran (Che) 6 bt A Visveshwar (Vel) 5, Vasantha Ruba Varman (Che) 6 bt GV Kishore (Slm) 5, M Vaisnav (Tpr) 6 bt P Sarveshwaran (Tpr) 5.
Girls: G Aarthi (Che) 6.5 bt R Divya Lakshmi (Che) 7.5, U Ashwini (Che) 7 bt A Prakruthee (Che) 5.5, R Vaishali (Che) 6 drew with V Shvetha (Kan) 6.5, Y Saranya (Tlr) 6 bt S Bharkavi (KK) 5.5, Priyadharshni (Kgi) 6 bt Annie Gladys (KK) 5, CR Aasha (Kan) 6 bt CR Varsha (Kan) 5, CK Varsha (Cbe) 5 lost to PL Kavitha (Slm) 6, TRS Dakshinya (Tpr) 5 lost to R Dharani Sree (Che) 6, D Meera (NLC) 4 drew with I Harivardhini (TLR) 5, VD Lakshmi (KK) 4 drew with A Harshini (TRR) 5.
Sethuraman Shines
J Sethuraman’s 61 helped Jupiter Sports Club beat Egmore Club by 62 runs in the TNCA Fourth Division League.
Brief scores: IVth Division ‘A’: Jupiter Sports Club 185 for 7 in 42 overs (G Vijay Kumar 46, J Sethuraman 61 n.o., S Surendar 32, L Venkata Narayanan 3-67) bt Egmore Club 123 for 9 in 42 overs (PN Baskaran 48 n.o., P Goutham 4-32).
Vth Division ‘C’: Haranath Cricket Club 138 for 8 in 31 overs (M Sriram 52, S Tarun Srinivas 4-32) lost to Kamyuth Club 141 for 8 in 30.2 overs (V Manikandan 3-24).