Soumya made a sharp work of A Pattnaik of Orissa in a Ruy Lopez game, Soumya playing white delayed castling and attacked on f-7 which Patnaik failed to defend and lost in just 29 moves.

Top seed Saheli Nath of WB kept her chances alive by scoring over D Harika of AP in a kings Indian opening. Saheli playing black took full advantage of rival's wrong side castling and captured a pawn in middle game to clinch the issue in 82 moves.

Point position: S Soumya (7), Saheli Nath, and MA Gomes 6.5 each, A Patnaik, and VS Bhairavi (Pondicherry) 6 points each; Point position: Sangma, Abhay, Soumitra and Kirthee (6.5), A Khamapria (MP), Varun Dattani (Maha) and R Sriniwasan (Delhi) all 6 points each

Kidambe heads tally

JALANDHAR: S Kidambe of Tamil Nadu celebrated his 16th birthday today by winning overSatyapragyan of Orissa to top the table with five points, even as two international masters K Sasikaran of Tamil Nadu and Tejas Bakre of Indian Airlines fought a battle to make a draw at the end of the fifth round on the fifth day of 28th National Junior Championship.

Satyapragyan, playing with carookan opening, tried to force a draw by exchanging pieces early in the game. But Kidambee, playing with unusual ferocity. Bamboozed his rival and landed him in Zugzwang position by forcing him to resign in 46 moves.

Swati, Pallavi upset

THALASSERY: Third-seeded International Woman Master Nisha Mohota gave a boost to her chances of claiming the title with a crucial victory over Kerala's Sasinas Haritha in the seventh round of the 13th National junior girls chess championship.

Important results:(seventh round): Sasinas Haritha 4.5 lost to Nisha Mohota 6, Neha Singh 5.5 bt Manasi Dadarkar 5, M R Sangeetha 5.5 bt Shraddha Samani 4.5, Swati Ghate 4 lost to Chitra Sridhar 5, Pazha Sivakami 5 bt Pallavi Shah4, S Sujatha 4 lost to Aarthie Ramaswamy 5, Aswini Pachapurkar 5 bt K Preethi 4, Pannaga Magal 4.5 bt Y Prathibha 3.5, Manula James 3.5 lost to Eesha Karvade 4.5, S Cynthia 4.5 bt M Priyadarshini 3.5, Suma Sarkar 3 lost to J E Kavitha 4, M Kavana 4 bt T T Lakshmi Priya 3, M Kasthuri 4 bt H Nilavoli 3, J Megha 3 lost to N Sandhya 4, H Isai Amudhu 3 lost to Anurprita Patil 4.