Soundarya, Darpan hopes rise after Gangolli draws

Pune: A draw from six-time champion

Kishan Gangolli

of Karnataka and a win by Soundarya

Kumar Pradhan

of Odisha meant India may get a new champion in the National chess for the visually challenged at PYC on Saturday.The ninth and last round starts at 9am where much is at stake. The top-five players from this meet will make it to the India team for the World Team chess championship for the blind. Top seed Darpan

Inani

(5.5 points) will need to beat

Gangolli

(6.5) with black pieces and hope other results go in his favour to get into top-5.Soundarya Kumar Pradhan, now sole leader with 7 points, defeated third seed Aryan Joshi of Maharashtra (5.5) with safety-first approach in the endgame. He didn’t make the best of moves to finish off his opponent in emphatic manner, choosing to first shield his king from the perceived threats of checks.Soundarya meets

Swapnil Shah

(6) in the last round.Inani was in time trouble against Prachurya Kumar Pradhan but calculated precisely in a gripping endgame replete with possibilities. tnn
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