Sambit Panda defeated low rated Arya Bhakta in the 10th round and scored eight points and placed in the second place along with three others in the 29th National U-11 Open Chess Championship at Pundicheary on Monday. In the final bout Sambit would meet solo leader FM Praggnanandhaa R.
Another Odisha boy, Mahitosh Dey edged out Ranadheer BJSK and scored seven points.
Baibhab Singh suffered defeat from Bharath Subramaniyam H and remain unchanged with six points. Pratyansu Kar and Soubhanik Mazumdar scored fivepoints each.
Rudranarayan, Saswat Mallick and Ankit Kumar Sethi scored 4.5, four and 3.5 points respectively.
Among the Odisha girls, Ankita Sahoo scored highest six points and Priyanka Routray and Aditi Mohanty scored 5.5
points each.
Altogether 193 players are participating in open category in which eight Odisha players are in the race. Similarly in girls 97 players are participating including three from Odisha.