CALCUTTA: M R Venkatesh of Tamil Nadu emerged sole leader with seven points after the eighth round in the boys under-14 of the 12th National Children's chess championship.

Former world under-10 champion P Harikrishna of Andhra Pradesh and R Navin of Tamil Nadu were jointly in the second position with 6.5 points.

In the girls' under-14, Shradha Samani of Maharashtra and C Delphin (TN) were jointly in lead with 6.5 points while Bengal's Vaisakhi Das and Tamil Nadu's P Aparna Krishnan were in the second position with six points each.

Nine shortlisted

CHENNAI: Nine amateur golfers, including three juniors, have been shortlisted for selection to represent India in the Asia Pacific Amateur golf championsip for the Nomura Cup scheduled to be held at Lahore from October 7-10.

Delhi's junior golfers Shiv Kapur, Ashok Kumar and Tamil Nadu's Sandeep Sayal are to vie for the berth in the final team along with six seniors Sheeraz Kalra (Lucknow), Amit Luthra, Aman Bahl,Manov Das (all from Delhi), Rahul Ganapathi (Mysore) and Amesh Jaita (Pune).

Two-way fight

BANGALORE: Mukesh Kumar (210) and Rafiq Ali (211) are likely to set up a final day title clash in the Rs 6 lakh Wills Open, an event which is part of the silver jubilee celebrations of the Karnataka Golf Course (KGA).

On the penultimate day, Mukesh carded one under 71, with an aggregate of 210, followed by Rafiq Ali's two under-211.

Ali sher is placed third at two-over 217 for the third day.