Venkatesh remains in lead at National Premier Chess Championship

KOLKATA: MR Venkatesh continued to lead the field with 7.5 points after the end of the 10th round of the National Premier Chess Championship at Kshudiram Anushiram Kendra on Thursday.Venkatesh was followed by G N Gopal and Deep Sengupta in the second spot with seven points each.Venkatesh, playing white against Vidit Gujrathi got active pay on the queenside in a Reti opening but the latter sacrificed the exchange to get counter in the centre. The game was eventually drawn in 25 moves.G N Gopal won a long game in a rook ending against Anurag Mhamal of Goa in a Ruy Lopez opening.Deep Sengupta made short work of Sahaj Grover by a brilliant knight sacrifice on the 23rd move in a Slav defence.Deep got back the piece a few moves later, after which Grover's position went to pieces.Swapnil Dhopade of Railways went down to G Akash in a Sicilian dragon in 66 moves.Abhijit Kunte drew against S Arun Prasad in 26 moves by repetition of moves in a queen's pawn opening.Sundarajan Kidambi was outwitted by world U-12 champion, Murali Kartikeyan in 47 moves in a Sicilian defence.Meanwhile, 13 year old Aravindh Chithambaram withdrew from the tournament to take part in the National U-13 which begins in Chennai from October 14.Neelotpal Das took his tally to 6 points with a victory against P Kartikeyan while Mary Ann Gomes drew against Diptayan Ghosh.Round 10 Results GM M.R. Venkatesh (7.5) drew IM Vidit Gujarathi (6.5); GM G.N. Gopal (7) bt FM Anurag Mhamal (6); GM Sahaj Grover (5.5) lost to GM Deep Sengupta (7); G. Akash (6.5) bt IM Swapnil Dhopade (6); GM Abhijit Kunte (6) drew GM S.Arun Prasad (6); GM B.Adhiban (6) drew IM S. Satyapragyan (5.5); GM Praveen Thipsay (5.5) drew GM S.P. Sethuraman (5.5); K Praneeth Surya (5) lost to GM Deepan Chakraborthy (6); GM Neelotpal Das (6) bt IM P. Kartikeyan (5); Sagar Shah (6) bt IM Debashis Das (5); GM Dibyendu Barua (4.5) lost to GM M.R. Lalith Babu (5.5); WGM Mary Ann Gomes (5) drew FM Diptayan Ghosh (5); IM Swayams Mishra (5.5) bt Bitan Banerjee (4.5); Murali Kartikeyan (5) bt GM S. Kidambi (4); IM Saptarshi Roy(4) gave walk over to S.L. Narayanan (5); IM C. Praveen Kumar (4.5) drew M.L. Abhilash Reddy(4.5); FM Aravindh Chithambaram (5) bt Ram S. Krishnan (3.5); Suvrajit Saha (4.5) bt FM V.A.V. Rajesh (3.5); B.T. Murali Krishnan (4.5) bt C.R.G. Krishna (3.5); S. Ravi Teja (3.5) lost to Pratik Patil (4.5); Sohan Phadke (2.5) drew Arindam Mukherjee (3.5); Sashikant Kutwal (4.5) got a bye.