By Arvind Aaron

Ashwin Jayaram may be living in Bangalore but he is very much a Chennaiite from Mylapore. He is leading the Sri Sai Ram Engineering College sponsored Asian Junior Chess Championships after seven rounds.

In an important round seven game, Ashwin Jayaram ovecame world under-16 champion Baskar Adhiban also of Chennai. Adhiban had a draw at three stages and he went for that win and paid the price for risk. Ashwin Jayaram leads with 6/7 and two rounds are still to be played. Ashwin had been trained by Manuel Aaron, D. Ganesh, D.B. Prakash etc.

The second place is crowded with Rahul Sangma of Delhi, national junior champion M.R. Lalith Babu of Vijayawada, world under-14 champion Vidit Gujrathi of Nasik, K. Priyadharshan of Madurai, S. Nitin of Salem and Vishnu Prasanna of Chennai occupying it. A photo finish can be expected.

This Asian Junior is organised by the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association and the Sports Promotion Foundation on behalf of the All India Chess Federation.In the girls group, Kruttika Nadig and Mary Ann Gomes scored important wins to lead with 6/7 and also set up a round eight clash between them. The rest ofthe players are one point below.

If you are in Chennai on December 14 at 3.30 p.m. then you are lucky as there is a rare chance to see Viswanathan Anand. The World champion, Padma Vibhushan Anand will be distributing the prizes. He had won this Asian Junior the last time it was held in Tamil Nadu.