National chess championship: Exciting finish in the offing as five players share lead

Kanpur, March 1 (IANS) The 58th Senior National Chess Championship is heading for an exciting finish as five players are now leading the point table with 6.5 points with just three rounds to go in the Rs 30 lakh prize money event.

In the crucial eighth round on Tuesday, Tamil Nadu Grandmaster P Iniyan outwitted top seed B Adhiban while International Master P Pranav shocked seasoned campaigner Grandmaster Deep Sengupta to join Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh D at the top of the table along with defending champion Aravindh Chithambaram, who beat Railway's, Sayantan Das.

Overnight joint leaders Erigaisi and Gukesh signed the peace treaty with Visakh N.R and M.R Lalith Babu respectively which enabled Iniyan, Pranav and Chithambaram to catch up the leaders with contrasting wins in the eighth round.

In other important results, GM Mitrabha Guha and Aryan Chopra agreed to split the points while commonwealth champion Abhijeet Gupta beat Nitin S of Railways. Mitrabha, Aryan and Abhijeet are now trailing half-point behind the leaders along with Lalith Babu, Visakh, Swapnil Dhopade and Aditya Mittal. Swapnil got the better of IM Srijit Paul of West Bengal while Adiya registered victory over Srihari L.R of Tamil Nadu in the eighth round.

Important Results:-

Round 8: GM Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana (6.5) drew with GM Visakh N.R of Railways (6); GM Lalith Babu M R of PSPB (6) drew with GM Gukesh D of Tamil Nadu (6.5); GM Iniyan P of Tamil Nadu (6.5) beat GM Adhiban B of PSPB (5.5); GM Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamil Nadu (6.5) beat IM Sayantan Das of Railways (5.5); GM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal (6) drew with GM Aryan Chopra of Delhi (6); GM Deep Sengupta of PSPB (5.5) lost to IM Pranav V of Tamil Nadu (6.5); IM Nitin S of Railways (5) lost to GM Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB (6); IM Himal Gusain of Railways (5.5) drew with GM Sethuraman S P of PSPB (5.5); IM Srijit Paul of West Bengal (5) lost to GM Swapnil Dhopade of Railways (6); IM Aditya Mittal of Maharashtra (6) beat IM Srihari L R of Tamil Nadu (5); IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete of Maharashtra (5.5) drew with IM Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal (5.5); IM Koustav Chatterjee of West Bengal (5.5) drew with IM K Ratnakaran of Railways (5.5); Sambit Panda of Odisha (5.5) drew with GM Laxman R R of Railways (5.5); IM Sarvana Krishnan of Tamil Nadu (4.5) lost to GM Karthikeyan Murali of PSPB (5.5); GM Harsha Bharathakoti of Telangana (5) drew with FM Ayush Sharma of Madhya Pradesh (5); IM Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh (4.5) lost to IM Ravi Teja S of Railways (5.5); Utsab Chatterjee of West Bengal (5) drew with IM Pranesh M of Tamil Nadu (5); IM Neelash Saha of West Bengal lost to FM Aaryan Varshney of Delhi (5.5); FM Sharan Rao of Karnataka (4.5) lost to IM Vignesh N R of Railways (5.5); IM Shyaamnikhil P of Railways (5.5) beat Anilkumar O T of Kerala (4.5).