Yashpal, seeded 23rd here, faced the Nimzo-Indian Defence against second seed Poobesh Anand. Sujeesh, the Kerala sub-junior champion, was three pawns to the good by move 24 in the Queens Gambit Accepted against 10th seed R Siddharth of Capa Academy (Chennai) after winning the first on move 16. He then simplified the position to reach a rook ending which ended after 60 moves.

Top seed Valay Parikh of Gujarat took only 23 moves in Bishop's Opening to crush last year's Asian under-12 bronze medallist Deepan Chakravarthy of Tamil Nadu. Yashpal, Sujeesh, Valay, Yahsem Singh (Manipur), Aditya Vikram (UP) and Saptarshi Roy (GNCA) shared the lead with three points each.

In the girls section, Prathibha, Kavitha and P Priya (all TN) shared the lead with three points each. Priya of T Nagar Academy accounted for eighth seed AmrithaMokal of Maharashtra in 22 moves of Petroff Defence.

TOPBOARD RESULTS (3RD ROUND)

BOYS: Valay Parikh (Guj) 3 bt Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) 2, Aditya Vikram (UP) 3 bt Jagadeesh (Kar) 2, Yahsem Singh (Manipur) 3 bt Abhijit Gupta (Raj) 2, Saptarshi Roy (GNCA) 3 bt V Srinivas (TN) 2, K Sujeesh (Kerala) 3 bt R Siddharth (Capa) 2, Yashpal Singh (MP) 3 bt Poobesh Anand (TN) 1.5, Omkar Patvardhan (Mah) 2.5 bt P Kumaresh (TN) 1.5, Deep Sen Gupta (Bih) 1.5 lost to Rahul Sangma (Bih) 2.5, R S Prasanna (TN) 2 drew Sayantan Datta (GNCA) 2, Somak Palit (WB) 2.5 bt Gopi Mohanan (Ker) 1.5, Adway Choudhury (WB) 2 drew N Vigneswaran (TN) 2, Phoobalan (TN) 2 drew Soumya RanjanMishra (Ori) 2, S Raghuraman (TN) 1.5 lost to Rakesh Agarwal (Bih) 2.5, Jayant Sreenivas (TN) 1.5 lost to R Naveen (Capa) 2.5, Byomakesh Naik (Ori) 2 bt Akshay Raj Kore (Bih) 1, Abhay Kumar Sinha (Mah) 1 lost to Seetharam Reddy (AP) 2.

GIRLS: Prathibha (TN) 3 bt Pannaga Magal (Mah) 2, Pooja Vadekar (Kar) 2 lost to J E Kavitha (TN)3, Amritha Mokal (Mah) 2 lost to P Priya (T Nagar) 3, M Rajadarshini (TN) 2.5 drew H Nilavoli (TN) 2.5, Neenu George (Ker) 2.5 drew Eesha Karvade (Mah) 2.5, Malarselhi (TN) 2.5 bt Priyanka Kale (Kar) 2, Baisakhi Das (WB) 2.5 bt Thelma Gopal (Ker) 1.5, Nimmy George (Ker) 2 drew Anupriya Anil Patel (Mah) 2, Aswathy Balagopal (Ker) 2.5 bt M Kasthuri (TN) 1.5, Priyadarshini (TN) 1.5 drew M Akila (TN) 2, Shradha Samani (Mah) 2 bt Sonam Shah (Guj) 1, Nabeela Farheen (TN) 1.5 drew Rucha Karvade (Mah) 1.5; R Mahima (TN) 2 bt J Megha (Kar) 1, K R Anitha (Ker) 1 lost to K Preethi (TN) 2, Saheli Nath (WB) 2 bt Mrudula Mahbar (Mah) 1, Sumathi (TN) 2 bt N Sandhya (Ker) 1, Mary Santha (Mani) 1 lost to Krishna Manjush (AP) 2, Harika (AP) 1 lost to Kruthika Nadig (Mah) 2, Priya (Bih) 2 bt Yashodha Patil (Kar) 1, Supriya Maji (WB) 1 lost to Aradhana Padhiary (Ori) 2.