Pune: Grandmaster SP Sethuraman of PSPB scored a clinical win with black pieces against GM Visakh NR and improved his overnight lead to 7.5 points at the 60th National Chess Championships 2023 being organized by the Maharashtra Chess Association and played at the Boxing Hall of the Balewadi Sports Complex here on Wednesday.
The eighth round was full of surprises, and resulted in lots of ups and downs in the rankings of the players in contention in the tournament.
Sethuraman, playing on board 1, has now accumulated 7.5 pts out of 8 rounds to lead the tournament with half a point and three rounds to go.
The game between GM Abhimanyu Puranik and GM P Iniyan on board 2 was the most exciting game of round 8, and was full of tactics. Abhimanyu made a mistake in the tactics, and Iniyan, who is in great form, played the perfect moves and won a very important game in round 8 to take joint second position with 7 points.
On Board 3, there was again a tempting game between GM Mitraba Guha and GM Diptayan Ghosh. The game was very equal after the opening, but GM Guha soon got trapped in Ghosh’s tactics, and GM Ghosh took heavy advantage right in the middle game and the game soon ended with Guha resigning, giving Ghosh a well fought win. GM Diptayan Ghosh is joint second with 7 points.
IM Aronak Ghosh, playing on board 4, defeated GM Deep Sengupta with the white pieces. Ghosh had a small advantage right after the opening. Ghosh played a long game, slowly trying to get more advantage with every move. Eventually, GM Deep Sengupta buckled under the pressure and resigned, handing Ghosh a much-deserved win. Ghosh is joint second with 7 points.
Results (Eighth Round):
Visakh, NR (6) (RSPB) lost to Sethuraman, SP (7.5) (PSPB).
Abhimanyu Puranik (6) (AAI) lost to Iniyan P (7) (TN).
Mitrabha Guha (6) (Ben) lost to Diptayan Ghosh (7) (WB).
Aronyak, Ghosh (7) (RSPB) bt Deep Sengupta (6) (PSPB).
Neelash Saha (7) (RSPB) bt Shyaamnikhil P (5.5) (RSPB).
Surya Shekhar Ganguly (6) (PSPB) drew with Krishna CRG (6) (RSPB).
Mehar Chinna Reddy CH (5.5) (RSPB) lost to Akash G (6.5) (TN).
Rajesh Nayak (6) (ODI) drew with Anuj Shrivatri (6) (MP).
Apoorv Kamble (5.5) (KAR) lost to Vishnu Prasanna V (6.5) (TN).
Srihari LR (6.5) (TN) bt Vignesh Vemula (5.5) (TEL).
Arghyadip Das (5) (RSPB) lost to Vedant Garg (6.5) (CHD).
Imocha Laishram (5) (PSPB) lost to Abhijieet Gupta (6) (PSPB).
Setumadhav Yellumahanthi (5) (AP) lost to Sayantan Da s (6) (RSPB).
Ram Krishnan (5.5) (BSNL) drew with Venkatesh, MR (5.5) (PSPB).
Shankhodip De (5) (Ben) lost to Sidhant Mohapatra (6) (RSPB).
Harsh Himanshu (5) (Bih) lost to Utkal Sahoo (6) (ODI).
