Vijayawada, March 7: Eighth seed C Natarajan (TN) extracted a draw from the top seed International Master elect Dinesh Kumar Sharma of LIC, while N Vinuthna scored an upset win over Fide-rated AP women champion Ch Kavitha in the third round of the 9th Andhra Gymkhana National Youth (U-25) Chess Tournament being held at Andhra Gymkhana on Tuesday. Second seed Syed Anwar Shajuli (TN), Manish Joshi (MP), J Ramakrishna (AP) and Gunasekhran (TN) are leading the bunch with three points, while Dinesh Kumar Sharma (LIC), Pankaj Joshi (Venus), Pranjal Das (WB), Prassana (T Nagar Chess Academy), Ajay Pande (UP), S R Misra (Orissa) are behind the leaders with 2.5 points. On the top board Dinesh Kumar opened with Queen pawn, for which Natarajan replied with Dutch Stonewall variation and swiftly began to attack the king side. ``The middle game was unclear hence I offered draw at the 23rd move", said Dinesh Kumar, who is few Elo points away from IM title. Fourteen-year-old AP's N Vinuthna created an upset by defeating Fide-rated Ch Kavitha in a Sicilian defence game in 40 moves. Against Kesavananda Krishna (Rlys), second seed Syed Anwar Shazuli (TN) got into plus position at 15th move in Larson variation. Krishna lost his pawn on move No. 22 and later lost another on the 29th and resigned. The game between Pankaj Joshi (Venus) and Pranjal Das (WB) ended in a draw as both the players agreed for peace treaty after 40 moves. Pradeep Phatak, against Manish Joshi, played an English opening. Joshi unleashed a king side attack with g5 and h5. Phatak threw in the towel after 30 moves. J Ramakrishna (AP) outplayed I Amarnadh (AP) in 20 moves. National under-9 champion D Sai Srinivas of AP lost to Fide-rated S R Misra (Orissa) after a hard-fought game of 60 moves in Sicilian defence. Results:Dinesh Kumar (LIC) 2.5 d/w C Natarajan (TN) 2.5; Syed Anwar (TN) 3 bt Ch Krishna (Rlys) 2; Pankaj Joshi (Venus) 2.5 d/w Pranjal das (WB) 2.5; Manish Joshi (MP) 3 bt Pradeep Pathak (UP) 2; J Ramakrishna (AP) 3 bt I Amarnadh (AP) 2; Gunasekharan (TN) 3 bt Ganesh Bhatt (Ker) 2; Prassana (TNCA) 2.5 bt D Harika (AP) 1.5; Ajay Pande (UP) 2.5 bt Satyakam (Orissa) 1.5; Misra (Orissa) 2.5 bt Sai Srinivas (AP) 1.5; M Srinivas (AP) 2 bt N Raju N (AP) 1.5; Dinesh Kumar (TN) 2 bt Girija Kumar (AP) 1; P Rajesh (TNCA) 2 bt Abhinav (AP) 1; Malleswara Rao (A) 2 bt Jagan Mohan Reddy (Kar) 1; Banik Somanath (WB) 2 bt Vennala (AP) 1; Kashim (AP) 2 bt G N Gopal (Ker) 1; Vinuthna (AP) 2 bt Ch Kavitha (AP) 1; G Rohit (AP) 2 bt Devkaran Bhatti (Mah) 1; K S Krishna (CAPA) 2 bt Sanjay Kumar (Chormepet Chess Academy) 1; K N Kumar (EMA) 2 bt Mukesh Jain (Raj) 1; Karthik (Capa) 2 bt Basanta Singh (Mani) 1; L D Rao (IAF) 2 bt Inao Sharma (Mani) 1; Raghvendra (Kar) 2 bt P Satyanarayana (AP) 1; Vedadri (AP) 1.5 bt AtulPareek (Raj) 0.5; Gururajan (IAF) 1 bt Gaurav Nangia (Mah ) 0.5; Mukesh Mandoli (Raj) 1 bt Keerthi Rana (AP) 0; Neeraj Sharma (Raj) 0.5 d/w Srikanth (EMA) 0.5; Rahul Sharma (Bihar) 1 bt Kranti Kiran (Chormepet Chess Academy) 0; Smeer Thakar (HP) 1 bt Varun Sagar (AP) 0; Shaji (Ker) 1 bt Praneeth (AP) 0; Naveen (AP) 0.5 bt Choudary (AP) 0.5
