Pune: Grandmaster SP Sethuraman assumed sole lead 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.
GM Mitraba Guha, drew with fellow top board player Abhimanyu Puranik on board 1, endingPuranik’s winning streak of 5 matches. Guha did not let Abhimanyu take any advantage, and played a solid game with the black pieces on Monday.
GM SP Sethuraman, playing on board 2, defeated GM Deep Sengupta with black pieces, converting a technical endgame. Sethuraman now has a perfect score of 6/6.
GM Deepan Chakravarthy played an extremely solid game in round 6, and held GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly to a draw. Ganguly, who was not in his top form and could not find the best moves in the middle game, and had to settle for a draw.
GM Diptayan Ghosh, defended well with the black pieces, and accepted a draw with GM Venkatesh MR on board 4. GM Venkatesh, was slightly better with the white pieces, but played it safe, and settled for a draw.
The biggest upset of Round 6 came when Apoorv Kamble—Karnataka’s Blitz champion, playing on board 10. State blitz Champion defeated GM Sayantan Das with the white pieces. Sayantan made a mistake in the endgame, and Apoorv immediately capitalized on it, and won the game.
Results (Sixth Round):
Abhimanyu Puranik (5.5)(AAI) drew with Mitrabha Guha (5.5) (Ben).
Deep Sengupta (5) (PSPB)lost to Sethuraman, SP (6) (PSPB).
Surya Shekhar Ganguly (5) (PSPB) drew with Deepan, Chakkravarthy J (5) (RSPB).
Venkatesh, MR (5) (PSPB) drew with Diptayan Ghosh (5) (Ben).
Vishnu, Prasanna V (4.5) (TN) lost to Aronyak, Ghosh (5.5) (RSPB).
Kolla, Bhaavan(5)(AP) drew with Shyaam Nikhil, P (5) (RSPB).
Utkal Sahoo(4) (ODI) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (5) (PSPB).
Visakh NR (5) (RSPB) bt Dinesh Sharma (4) (LIC).
Praveen Kumar C(4) (TN)lost to Iniyan P (5) (TN).
Apoorv Kamble(5pts)(KAR) bt Sayantan Das(4pts)(RSPB).
Akash G(4.5pts)(TN) drew with Kaivalya Nagare(4.5pts)(MAH).
Neelash Saha (5) (RSPB) bt Vivaan Shah (4) (GUJ).
Anuj Shrivatri (5) (MP) bt Yash Bharadia (4) (RAJ).
Arghyadip Das (5) (RSPB) bt Aakash, G (4) (TN).
Srihari, LR (5)(TN) bt Potluri, Supreetha(4pts) (AP).
Harshit Pawar (4.5)(Del) drew with Krishna, CRG (4.5) (RSPB).
Shrayan Majumder(4) (Mah) lost to Mehar Chinna Reddy CH(5) (RSPB).
