Shradha, who had lost in the very first round here, removed a potential threat to her title aspirations in Round 8 when she capitalised on an opening weakness by Baisakhi Das of West Bengal, who went into this round with six points. Baisakhi misplayed the Ruy Lopez and went for a wrong exchange of bishop for knight, which allowed black to come up with a sacrificial offer. Shradha won two pawns and then a piece, all inside 21 moves.

Nimmy George played the black side of Kings Gambit Accepted in a subdued manner against Mary Ann Gomes of Goodricke Academy, who looked in control with the bishop pair. Nimmy,the only undefeated player in the girls' section, however, wriggled out of danger when she forced the exchange of pieces and entered a Queen and rooks ending. She then controlled the second rank and threatened a mating attack which netted her the white Queen after 42 moves.

In the boys section, dark horse RS Prasanna of TN and Saptarshi Roy of Goodricke Academy shared the lead with 6.5 points each. Prasanna won an exciting duel in Sicilian Defence against Yashpal Singh Sonwani of MP after winning a piece in early middle game. Yashpal could not contain white's central passer and resigned after 47 moves.

Saptarshi Roy scored a 35-move win in Sicilian defence over MK Narasimhan of T Nagar Academy. Top seed Valay Parikh of Gujarat bounced back into contention with a 30-move win over Omkar Patwardhan of Maharashtra in Caro-Kann Defence.

TOPBOARD RESULTS (ROUND 8)

BOYS: RS Prasanna (TN) 6.5 bt Yashpal Singh (MP) 6; Saptarshi Roy (GNCA) 6.5 bt M K Narasimhan (T Nagar) 5.5; Valay Parikh (Guj) 6 btOmkar Patwardhan (Mah) 5; Soumya Ranjan Mishra (Ori) 6 bt Sujeesh (Kerala) 5; Girija Kumar (AP) 5 lost to Yambem Singh (Mani) 6; Byomakesh Naik (Ori) 5.5 drew with Rakesh Agarwal (Bih) 5.5; Phoobalan (TN) 6 bt S Raghuraman (TN) 5; Poobesh Anand (TN) 5 drew with R Naveen (Capa) 5; Kumaresh (Chrompet) 5 drew with Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) 5; Deep Sen Gupta (Bih) 5.5 bt Vigneswaran (TN) 4.5; V Srinivas (Chrompet) 4.5 lost to Somak Palit (WB) 5.5; Ranvir Singh Bhatia (MP) 5 bt Aditya Vikram (UP) 4; Abhijit Gupta (Raj) 4 lost to Raj Kamal Biswas (Ori) 5.

GIRLS: Baisakhi Das (WB) 6 lost to Shradha Samani (Mah) 7; Pratibha (TN) 6 bt Malarselvi (TN) 5.5; Mary Ann Gomes (GNCA) 5 lost to Nimmy George (Ker) 6.5; Anuprita Anil Patil (Mah) 5.5 drew with Saheli Nath (WB) 5.5; Preethi (Capa) 5 drew with Amrutha Mokal (Mah) 5.5; JE Kavitha (TN) 5.5 bt Mathuri Patil (Mah) 4.5; Eesha Karvade (Mah) 5.5 bt Kruthika Nadig (Mah) 4.5; Kasthuri (TN) 5.5 bt Rajadarshini (TN) 4; Rucha Karvade (Mah) 4.5 drew with Isai Amudhu(TN) 4.5; N Sandhya (Ker) 5 bt Aswathy Balagopal (Ker) 4; Priya (T Nagar) 5 bt Pannaga Magal (Mah) 4; Nilavoli (TN) 4.5 drew with Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 4.5.