But the boys section promised to be a close affair with overnight leader MR Venkatesh (TN - 6.5) holding a slender half-a-point lead over former world U-10 winner P Harikrishna, Beenish Bhatia (both AP), P Mahesh Chandran, TV Karthikeyan (both TN) and S Satyapragyan (Orissa), all with six points.

Playing on the top table with white pieces, Aarthie was countered with Petroff defence by state-mate JE Kavitha. Aarthie gained middle game advantage but chose a fairly safe line to assure herself of the title and agreed for a draw.

Top seed Swati Ghate (Maha), IWM Nisha Mohota (WB) won their respective games to log six points and be joint second with JE Kavitha (TN). Swati Ghate beat Y Prathibha (TN, 5) in a Sicilian defence game lasting 60 moveswhile Nisha employed the Alekhine defence to overcame Manasi Dadarkar (Mah, 5) in 55 moves.

Karthikeyan held Venkatesh in a Sicilian defence game. Venkatesh kept the centre closed and after exchange of minor pieces in the middle game, draw was agreed to in 42 moves. Satyapragyan drew with Mahesh Chandran after playing accurately in a Petroff defence game.

National sub-junior champion Harikrishna beat MS Tej Kumar (Kar - 5) in his favourite English opening after 72 moves.

RESULTS

Boys:

TV Karthikeyan (TN) 6 drew with MR Venkatesh 6.5, S Satyapragyan (Ori) 6 drew with P Mahesh Chandran 6, S Rishipal Singh (AP) 5.5 drew with S Kidambi (TN) 5.5, P Harikrishna (AP) 6 bt MS Tej Kumar (Kar) 5, S Roy Choudhary (WB) 5.5 drew with Pramod N (Mah) 5.5, Manish Kumar (Bih) 4.5 lost to Beenish Bhatia (AP) 6, Akashdeep (Har) 5.5 bt SV Jeet Singh 4.5, RS Kashelkar (Mah) 4 lost to PS Mokal (Mah) 5.5, Kamble VR (Mah) 5 bt Vikas Sharma (Har) 4, CJ Arvind (TN) 4.5 drew with Himanshu Sharma (Har) 4.5, DRavishankar (Mah) 5 bt AP Singh (Pun) 4, R Shrivastava (Raj) 4 lost to Arjun (Mah) 5, RR Laxman (TN) 4 drew with Abhijeet Gupta (Raj) 4, Valay Parikh (Guj) 4.5 bt Ustav Shrivastava (UP) 3.5, Saurabh Soni (MP) 3.5 lost to Prakash KP (Ker) 4.5, Jilesh Gandhi (Guj) 4.5 bt Akash V Thakur (Mah) 3.5, Bharat Gupta (Raj) 4 bt Amit Dad (Raj) 3.5, Yashraj Adisani (Mah) 3.5 drew with K Naveen (TN) 3.5, Sunil Verma (Raj) 3 lost to SS Banerji (Mah) 4, Ravi Khanna (Raj) 3 drew with Praveen R Menon (Ker) 3, Hardik Jha (Guj) 2.5 lost to YG Vijayendra (Kar) 3.5, Nilabh Upadhyay (WB) 3.5 bt Suneet Singh (Har) 2.5, C Raja Kumar (AP) 3 bt AM Gupta (HP) 2, Gajendra Sidana (Raj) 2 lost to DM Modi 3.

Girls:

Aarthie Ramaswamy (TN) 7 drew with JE Kavitha (TN) 6, Y Prathibha (TN) 5 lost to Swati Ghate (Mah) 6, Manasi Dadarkar (Mah) 5 lost to Nisha Mohota (WB) 6, Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 5.5 bt AA Kulkarni (Mah) 5, MR Sangeeta (TN) 5.5 bt Nivedita Sagade (Mah) 4.5, Neha Singh (Bih) 5.5 bt Ch Kavitha (AP) 4.5, ES Karavade(Mah) 5.5 bt AS Mokal (Mah) 4, Koneru Humpy (AP) 5 bt Parul Mohata (Raj) 4, K Girila (Raj) 4 lost to Mugdha Arun (Mah) 5, Pooja Rathore (MP) 4 lost to Prajeesha K (AP) 4.5, Vaidehi Dave (Guj) 3.5 lost to B Srutha Keerthi (AP) 4.5, MS Karavade (Mah) 4.5 bt Preethi K (TN) 3, PL Sivakami (TN) 4 bt Anjna Jha (Del) 3, Azadesh Patel (Guj) 3 lost to Sandhya N (Ker) 4, Abha Thakur (Mah) 4 bt Srivalli Indrani (AP) 2.5, Zeal Patel (Guj) 3 lost to M Bhavani (AP) 3.5, B Shanta (TN) 3 bt Sonam Shah (Guj) 2, Shweta (Chg) 3 bt Jatinder Kaur (Chg) 2, Kanika (Har) 3 bt Dhayani Dave (Guj) 0, KN Mohanty (Ori) 2.5 bt Usha Upadhyay (Raj) 1.