Pune: The ninth round of the 60th National Chess Championship being organized by the Maharashtra Chess Association and played at the Boxing Hall of the Balewadi Sports Complex here was a round full of solid technical games. There were great solid performances on almost all the top boards.
Grandmaster SP Sethuraman continued his top form drawing on board 1 playing with the white pieces Sethuraman extended his unbeaten run to lead the Championship with 8 points from nine9 rounds. Sethuraman played a solid game right from the opening and did not give his opponent any chance to make unroads.
GM Diptayan Ghosh played out a draw with the in-form IM Neelash Saha on board 2. Ghosh and Sahawere joint second in the tournament with 7.5 points. Diptayan played a solid game right from the opening and did not give Saha any edge. The game was equal for most parts of the classical game, and ended in a much-deserved draw.
GM Vignesh R,up against GM P Iniyan on board 3, played the most exciting game of round 9. Vignesh attacked well with his rooks and queen. Vignesh had an advantage through the middle game, when Iniyan made a huge blunder in time pressure. Vignesh immediately capitalized and threatened checkmate in 1 move, when Iniyan resigned.
Board 4, was a battle between two top players from Tamil Nadu—GM Akash G and IM Srihari LR. The two friends dealt multiple blows to each other on the chess board, and played out an equal game. GM Akash had a small chance in the middle game, but could not convert the same against his fellow state mate. The marathon game rightly ended in a draw.
Results (Ninth Round):
Sethuraman SP (8) (PSPB) drew with Aronyak Ghosh (7.5) (RSPB).
Diptayan Ghosh (7.5) (Ben) drew with Neelash, Saha (7.5) (RSPB).
Iniyan P (7) (TN) lost to Vignesh NR (7.5) (RSPB).
Akash G (7) (TN) drew with Srihari LR (7) (TN).
Vishnu, Prasanna. V (7.5) (TN) bt Vedant Garg (6.5) (CHD).
Abhijeet Gupta (7) (PSPB) bt Soham Kamotra (6pts) (J&K).
Sidhant Mohapatra (6pts) (RSPB) lost to Abhimanyu Puranik (7) (AAI).
Krishna CRG (6.5) (RSPB) drew with Visakh NR (6.5) (RSPB).
Manisha Mohanty (6pts) (LIC) lost toMitrabha Guha (7) (WB).
Sayantan Das (7) (RSPB) bt Laxman RR (6pts) (RSPB).
Deep Sengupta(6.5) (PSPB) drew with Kolla, Bhaavan (6.5) (AP).
Deepan, Chakkravarthy J (7) (RSPB) bt Rajesh Nayak (6) (ODI).
Anuj, Shrivatri (6.5) (MP) drew with Dhananjay, S (6.5) (Cht).
Venkatesh, MR (6.5) (PSPB) bt Om Lamkane (6) (MAH).
Shyaamnikhil, P (6.5) (RSPB) bt Vignesh Vemula (5.5) (Tel).
Mandar Lad (6) (Goa) drew with Mehar, Chinna Reddy CH (6) (RSPB).
Karthikeyan, P (6.5) (RSPB) bt Ajay Parvathareddy (5.5) (UP).
Tadam Dupit (5.5)(ARU) lost to Utsab Chatterjee (6.5) (Ben).ax
