Swapnil Dhopade, Swayams Mishra joint leaders

Kolkata: International Master Swapnil Dhopade and Swayams Mishra emerged as joint leaders with five points each after round five of LSI Chess For Youth Championship at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here today.

Topseed Dhopade, playing black in round four, got the better of WGM Padmini Rout after he obtained an effective break-through in the centre in a Caro-Kan defence. In the next round, the talented Bengal youngster, Prantik Roy, tried to spring a surprise on Swapnil by opting for the Tarrasch defence. But Swapnil, a Central Railway employee, changed tracks by side-stepping into a little played variation. Prantik lost a pawn as well and lost the momentum to go down. In an earlier round, Prantik had upset WGM Mary Ann Gomes in a sharp tactical battle. Former World U-12 champion, Sayantan Das of Bengal went down rather tamely to second seed, Swayams Mishra of Orissa, who got a positional advantage in a Cambridge Springs defence and wrapped up the game with ease thereafter. In the U-16 event, Raunak Mondal emerged as the sole leader with five points as he beat Debangshu Chakraborti in an interesting struggle. Suvankar Maity trailed the leader with 4.5 points while the visually-impaired Yudhajeet Dey is in the joint third spot with Debangshu Chakraborti and Tista Pal Chowdhury. The final round will be played tomorrow afternoon. PTI