New Delhi, Aug 5 - Fide Master Shyam Nikil continued his fine run by holding top seed GM Salem A.R. Saleh of UAE in the fourth round Wednesday to remain in joint first position with three and half points in the Under-18 Open Section of the ongoing Asian Youth Chess Championship underway at the Tivoli Garden Resort here.
Meanwhile, overnight sole leader in the girls section N. Krithika extended her lead to full point as she overcame Uzbekistan girl Tokhirjanova Hulkar in the fourth round encounter.
India, however, had a set back in the Under-16 and Under-14 Open Sections as medal prospect Priyadharshan lost his fourth round match against sixth seed Nguyen Van Hai of Vietnam. Also overnight joint leader G.V. Sai Krishana tumbled against Idani Poya of Iran.
Continuing her good show in the championship, Tamil Nadu girl Srija Seshadri is now in sole lead with perfect score after four rounds in the girls under-12 sections category.
Priyanka Kumari, J. Saranya (Girls' Under-14), Diptyan Ghosh, Sayantan Das (Open Under-12) Srija Seshadri (Girls' Under-12) Ivana Maria Furtado (Girls' Under-10), Mitrabha Guha (Open Under-8) and Palkin Kaur (Girls' Under-8) were the other Indian leaders.
Important Results (Round-4 : Indians otherwise stated)
Under-18 Open : GM Salem A R Saleh of UAE (3.5 ) drew with Shayam Nikil (3.5) ; Shreyansh Daklia (2) lost to Debashis Das (3) ; Faizulaev Akmal of Uzbekistan (3) beat Ulziibayar Boldbaatar of Mongolia (2) ; Nhu Tung of Vietnam (2) lost to Pourramezanali Amirreza of Iran (2.5) ; Satyajit Kundu (2) drew with Darini Pouria of Iran (1.5)
Under-18 Girls : Pon N Krithika (4) beat Tokhirjanova Hulkar of Uzbekistan (2.5) ; Bhakti Kulkarni (3) beat Mitali Madhukar Patil (2.5) ; Nakhbayeva Guliskhan (3) beat Uthra P (2) ; Manasa K (2) drew with Isayeva Aynur (2.5); Dhara Gupta (2) drew with Sathya Priya (1.5)
Under-16 Open : Nguyen Van Hai of Vietnam (4) beat K Priyadharshan (3) ; Atabayev Maksat of Turkmenistan (3) beat Aditya Udehsi (2) ; Kazakov Konstantin of Kazakhstan (2) beat Tillayev Ulugbek of Uzbekistan (2) ; Saeed Ishaq of UAE (2) lost to Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (2.5); Ramnath Bhuvanesh (1.5) lost to Ankit R Rajpara (2.5)
Under-16 Girls : Hoang Thi Nhu Y of Vietnam (3.5) beat Hejazipour Mitra of Iran (2.5) ; Pallabi Roy (2.5) lost to Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam (3.5) ; Anu Bayar of Mongolia (2.5) drew with Nguyen Thi Mai Hung of Vietnam (2.5) ; Bharathi R (3) beat Enkhtuul Altanulzii of Mongolia (2) ; Zhylkaidarova Sholpan of Kazakhstan (2) drew with Shalmali Gagare (2)
Under-14 Open : Vakhidov Jahongir of Uzbekistan (3.