Debashis Das shares lead

New Delhi (12 Jan 19):-Odisha Grandmaster Debashis Das continued with his winning ways and downed Neelash Saha to share lead in the 17th Delhi International Chess Tournament now underway here.

Scoring his fifth victory in as many games, Debashis edged ahead of the field and will take on co-leader Grandmaster GM Mosadeghpour Masoud of Iran in the important sixth round game.

Neelash Saha, rated 2300 went for unusual moves in the opening and Debashis took his chances with black pieces to enter wild complexities. The game was already in Debashis’ favour in the early middle game and the Odisha-based ensured nothing went wrong for him.

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On top board, GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan of Iran drew with GM Diptayan Ghosh in what turned out to be a little less absorbing contest. Both these players were joined at the second spot by seven other players having 4.5 points apiece.

Local hopeful Vaibhav Suri succumbed to a loss against Siva Mahadevan of Tamil Nadu while Abhijeet Gupta defeated IM Ameir Moheb Egypt to reach 4 points.

The One Crore One Lakh prize money chess festival also has parallel events running with the main International open. The B Group of the big festival ended today with Dhanush Ragav N S of Tamil Nadu bagging the first prize of Rs. 3,01,000/-. Prakash Yadav of Madhya Pradesh finished second and won Rs. 2,01,000/- while Yadav Prem Gopal of Maharashtra was declared third that was worth one lakh one thousand rupees.

The ‘C’ category will begin on Sunday and will have over 1419 players competing in it. The International open carries a total prize money of Rs. 33,00,000/- (Rupees Thirty-three Lakhs).

Pairings

Round 6 on 2019/01/12 at 16:00 hrs