National Chess Championship: Arjun and Gukesh share lead after sixth round

Kanpur, Feb 28 (IANS) Young Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana and D Gukesh of Tamil Nadu wsre sharing the lead with 5.5 points at the end of the sixth round in the MPL 58th Senior National Chess Championship here on Monday.

Playing with light colour pieces in Two Knights Game, Erigaisi outwitted Commonwealth champion Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB in 46 moves while Gukesh halted the impressive show of International Master Koustav Chatterjee in the championship in 61 moves arrived out of Rossolimo variation of Sicilian Defence to join Arjun at top of point table.

In other important encounters in the sixth round, top seed B Adhiban of PSPB shared the point with former champion and teammate Lalith Babu M.R while defending champion Aravindh Chithamabaram got the better of International Master Aronyak Ghosh and Grandmaster Aryan Chopra of Delhi beat International Master Ravi Teja of Railways.

Aryan Chopra, Lalith Babu, Aravindh Chithambaram, Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal and Iniyan P. of Tamil Nadu are now occupying the second spot with five points. Mitrabha and Iniyan defeated Vignesh N.R of Railways and Shreyansh Daklia of Chhattisgarh respectively in the sixth round matches of this Rs 30 lakh prize money event sponsored by MPL Sports Foundation.

Results:

Round 6: GM Erigaisi Arjun of Telangana (5.5) beat GM Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB (4.5); IM Koustav Chatterjee of West Bengal (4.5) lost to GM Gukesh D of Tamil Nadu (5.5); GM Lalith Babu M R of PSPB (5) drew with GM Adhiban B of PSPB (4.5); GM Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamil Nadu (5) beat IM Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal (4); IM Ravi Teja S of Railways (4) lost to GM Aryan Chopra of Delhi (5); GM Deep Sengupta of PSPB (4.5) drew with IM Sayantan Das of Railways (4.5); Shreyansh Daklia of Chhattisgarh (4) lost to GM Iniyan P of Tamil Nadu (5); GM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal (5) beat IM Vignesh N R of Railways (4); GM Harsha Bharathakoti of Telangana (4.5) drew with GM Laxman RR of Railways (4.5); GM Abhimanyu Puranik of Maharashtra (4) drew with Sambit Panda of Odisha (4.5); IM Srihari L R of Tamil Nadu (4) drew with GM Sethuraman S P of PSPB (4); IM Sidhant Mohapatra of Railways (3.5) lost to GM Visakh N R of Railways (4.5); Utsab Chatterjee of West Bengal (4.5) beat GM Arjun Kalyan of Tamil Nadu (3.5); IM Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh (4) drew with GM Swapnil Dhopade of Railways (4); IM Aditya Mittal of Maharashtra (4.5) beat FM Ayush Sharma of Madhya Pradesh (3.5).