New Delhi, Aug 6 (Inditop.com) After a poor start, Delhi-based FIDE Master Sahaj Grover came back strongly to take the sole lead in the Under-14 Open category of the ongoing Asian Youth Chess Championship, defeating Vakhidov Jahongir of Uzbekistan in the sixth round here Thursday.

He now enjoys a crucial half point lead over teammate G.V. Sai Krishna and Iranian Idani Pouya.

In the girls Under-18 Open category, the dream run of Tamilnadu teenager Pon N. Krithika come to an halt as she lost her crucial fifth round match against Nakhbayeva Gulishkhan of Kazakhstan.

Just two rounds remaining in this section, Krithika is now tied in the pole position along with Gulishkhan and team mate Bhakti Kulkarni.

Meanwhile in the open section overnight joint leader Shyam Nikil signed the peace treaty against teammate Debashis Das in the fifth round encounter and that helped top-seed and Grandmaster Salem A. R. Saleh to take the sole lead as he beat Faizulaev Akmal of Uzbekistan in the fifth round.

J. Saranya (Girls’ Under-14), Diptyan Ghosh (Open Under-12) Monisha GK (Girls’ Under-12) Ivana Maria Furtado (Girls’ Under-10), Mitrabha Guha (Open Under-8) Nithya Pallempati and Tarini Goyal (Girls’ Under-8) were the other Indian leaders.

Important Results (Indians otherwise stated):

Under-18 Open (Round-5): GM Salem A R Saleh of UAE (4.5 ) beat Faizulaev Akmal of Uzbekistan (3); Shayam Nikil (4) drew with Debashis Das (3.5); Pourramezanali Amirreza of Iran (3.5) beat Shreyansh Daklia (2) ; Ulziibayar Boldbaatar of Mongolia (2.5) drew with Ton That Nhu Tung of Vietnam (2.5); Atabayev Yusup of Turkmenistan (3) beat Satyajit Kundu (2).

Under-18 Girls (Round-5): Nakhbayeva Gulishkhan of Kazakhstan (4) beat Pon N Krithika (4); Isayeva Aynur of Turkmenistan (2.5) lost to Bhakti Kulkarni (4) ; Tokhirjanova Hulkar of Uzbekistan (3) drew with Mitali Madhukar Patil (3) ; Uthra P (3) beat Dhara Gupta (2) ; Vardkar Mariam of Iran (2) lost to Manasa K (3)

Under-16 Open (Round-6): Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (4) drew with K Priyadharshan (4.5) ; Ankit R Rajpara (4) drew with Atabayev Maksat of Turkmenistan (4) ; Kazakov Konstantin of Kazakhstan (3) lost to Nguyen Van Hai of Vietnam (5); Tillyaev Ulugbek of Uzbekistan (3) lost to Aditya Udeshi (4) ; Ramanath Bhuvanesh (3.5) beat Rishi Thariani (2.5)

Under-16 Girls (Round-6): Hoang Thi Nhu Y of Vietnam (4.5) drew with Bharathi R (4); Rucha Pujari (4) drew with Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam (4.5) ; Hejazipour Mitra of Iran (3.5) drew with Nguyen Thi Mai Hung of Vietnam (3.5); Anu Bayar of Mongolia (3.5) drew with Pallabi Roy (3.5); Qurbonboeva Sarvinoz of Uzbekistan (4) beat Enkhtuul Altanulzii of Mongolia (3).

Under-14 Open (Round-6): Sahaj Grover (5) beat Vakhidov Jahongir of Uzbekistan (4) ; Idani Pouya of Iran (4.5) beat Shiven Khosla (3.5) ; Sai Krishna G V (4.5) beat Igambergenov Alibek of Kazakhstan (3.5) ; Vunong Trung Hieu of Vietnam (4) beat Nihal Manjunath (3) ; Sahoo Utkal Ranjan (2.5) drew with Pham Hoai Nam (3).

Under-14 Girls (Round-6): Saranya J (5) beat Priyanka Kumari (4.5) ; Khademalsharieh Sarasadat of Iran (5) beat Anjana Krishna (3.5) ; Pratyush Bodda (3) lost to Nandhidhaa P V (3.5) ; Vanessa D’souza (4) beat Atabayeva Gozel of Turkmenistan (3) ; Premanath Dinushki of Sri Lanka (4) beat Do Hoang Minh Tho of Vietnam (3)

Under-12 Open (Round-6): Diptayan Ghosh (5) drew with Shardul Gagare (4.5); Artmenko Oleg of Uzebakistan (4.5) beat Girsh A Koushik (3.5); Tran Tuan Minh of Vietnam (4.5) beat Vaibhav Suri (3.5) ; Sayantan Das (4.5) beat Cyrus Pereira (3.5) ; Bilguun Sumiya of Mongolia (3.5) drew with G Yogesh (3.5)

Under-12 Girls (Round-6): Lasya G (3.5) drew with Monnisha GK (5) ; Srija Seshadri (4.5) drew with Mahalakshmi (4.5); Atabayeva Ogulgerek of Turkmenistan (3) lost to Dao Thi Lan Anh of Vietnam (4) ; Shoumi Mukerjee (4) beat Koshkharova Botakoz (3) ; Derakhshani Dorsa (3.5) beat Megha Gupta (2.5)

Under-10 Open (Round-6): Lorparizangeneh Shahin of Iran (5) beat Ghanbarzadeh Reza (4); Abdumalik Zhansaya of Kazakhstan (4) drew with Omidi Arya of Iran (4.5) ; Pavit Singh (4) drew with Jeet Jain (4) ; Harshal Shahi (4) beat Nguyen Huynh Tuan Hai of Vietnam (3.5) ; Hetul Shah (4) beat Muhammad Firmansyah of Indonesia (3)

Under-10 Girls (Round-6): Ivana Maria Furtado (5) beat Meghna C H (3.5) ; Ghaziolsharif Kimiya of Iran (3.5) lost to Pham Thanh Phuong Thao of Vietnam (5) ; Hilmi Parveen (3.5) lost to Bauyrzhan Arnash of Kazakhstan (4.5); Kesshni Bhasiin (3) lost to Tejaswini Sagar (4) ; Musaeva Shakhnazi of Kyrgyzstan (3) lost to Nguyen Thanh Thuy Tien of Vietnam (4).

Under-8 Open (Round-6): Sankalp Baliarsingh (4) beat Mitrabha Guha (5) ; Aryan Chipra (4) lost to Prameya Garge (3.5); Shirani Liri Nima of Iran (4.5) beat Torshizi Ghorbani Mohammad Hosse of Iran (3); Zhalmakhanov Ramzan of Kazakhstan (3) lost to Vuong The Hung Vy of Vietnam (4) ; Sitorus Tromphin of Indonesia (2.5) lost to Tabatabaei M Amin of Iran (3.5).

Girls Under-8 (Round-5): Nithya Pallempati (4) beat Palkin Kaur (3.5); Arpita Mukherjee (3.5) drew with Khushi Dharewa (3.5) ; Tarini Goyal (4) beat Vagoohian Ramila of Iran (2.5); Hashemi Seyed Fatemeh of Iran (3) beat Elaine Vanessa of Indonesia (2) ; Gankhuyang Uchral of Mongolia (2.5) drew with Pham Vu Linh Chi of Vietnam (2.5).