Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh in lead in senior national chess
Kanpur: Young Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana and D Gukesh of Tamil Nadu grabbed the joint 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 white pieces in Two Knights Game, Arjun outwitted Commonwealth champion Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB in 46 moves while Gukesh halted the impressive run of International Master Koustav Chatterjee in 61 moves in a Sicilian Defence game.
Chatterjee held top-seed B Adhiban to a draw in the third round and defeated GM Karthikeyan Murali in the fifth round.
In other key matches in the sixth round, top seed B Adhiban of PSPB split the point with former champion and teammate M R Lalith Babu, while defending champion Aravindh Chithamabaram got the better off 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 P Iniyan of Tamil Nadu are in joint second spot with 5 points. Guha and Iniyan defeated N R Vignesh of Railways and Shreyansh Daklia of Chhattisgarh respectively in the sixth round.
Important Results: Round 6: Arjun Erigaisi (5.5) beat Abhijeet Gupta (4.5); Koustav Chatterjee (West Bengal) (4.5) lost to D Gukesh (5.5); Lalith Babu (5) drew with Adhiban (4.5); Aravindh Chithambaram (5) beat Aronyak Ghosh (4); S Ravi Teja (Rly) (4) lost to Aryan Chopra (5); Deep Sengupta (4.5) drew with Sayantan Das (Rly) (4.5); Shreyansh Daklia (Chhattisgarh) (4) lost to P Iniyan (5).
Mitrabha Guha (5) beat N R Vignesh (4); Harsha Bharathakoti (Telangana) (4.5) drew with R R Laxman (Rly) (4.5); Abhimanyu Puranik (Maharashtra) (4) drew with Sambit Panda (Odisha) (4.5); L R Srihari (TN) drew with SP Sethuraman (PSPB) (4).
