Nine players — Kalki Eshwar (Bengaluru), Chirag Mudraje (Dakshina Kannada), I. Samith Reddy (Bengaluru), Arnav Muralidhar (Mysuru), Abhay S. Bhandarkar (Bengaluru), P. Jagadish (Bengaluru), N. Rakesh (Mandya), S. Rakshith (Bengaluru) and Shreyansh A. Kulkarni (Bengaluru) — shared the lead with three points each with three rounds on the inaugural day of the Karnataka State Open U-17 Boys and Girls Chess Tournament conducted by Mysore Chess Centre at Raghavendra Mutt Hall in Krishnamurthypuram here yesterday.

In the U-17 Girls section, three players shared the lead with Mysuru’s Prasiddhi Bhatt, Swaralakshmi S. Nair (Bengaluru) and Dhanyatha Corry (Bengaluru) tied with three points each and are placed from one to three in the rankings. In the Open section, Mysuru’s Vishwajith (2.5-11th), C. Abhishek (2.5-14th) and M. Shivanth (2 points-15th) are playing well.

In the U-17 Girls section, Mysuru’s M.N. Eshanvi is placed fifth with 2.5 points, followed by Hemadri Sathish (2.5 points-6th place), Shardhi Shastry (2 points-9th place), Yashika R. Joshi (2 points-13th place) and Dhatri Umesh (2 points-15th place).

The tournament was inaugurated by Grand Master M.S. Thejkumar. Also present were Aravind Shastry, CEO, United Karnataka Chess Association (UKCA), Nagendra Muralidhar, Vice-President & Director, Mysore Chess Centre and Shivarame Gowda, Hon. Secretary, Mysore District Chess Association (MDCA).