Kumaran sole leader at national sub-junior chess

KOLKATA: Sixth seed B Kumaran took the sole lead by a slender margin as draws on the top three boards kept the equation wide open in the boys section of the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship on Friday.
Kumaran split point with Mohammed Nubairshah Shaikh to lead the table, while the latter along with Murali Karthikeyan, Diptayan Ghosh and Sidhant Mohapatra followed closely at the second position with 4.5 points each after six rounds.
Top seed Diptayan signed truce with second seed Karthikeyan after 38 moves while on the third board Mohapatra held Arvindh Chithambaram (4) for a creditable draw.
In the girls section, top two seeds M Mahalakshmi (5.5) and G K Monisha (5) had to settle for half a point each as the former held on to her slender lead.