Dhopade maintains lead; Lalith moves to second spot

By Gopakumar

Ahmedabad (20 Aug 17) :- Grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade of Railways maintained his stay at the top with one-point difference at the end of tenth round of the 55th National Challengers Chess Championship here at Karnavati Club on Sunday.

Playing safe on the top board, Dhopade signed the peace treaty with S Satyapragyan of Air India after mandatory 25 moves and took his tally to 9 points. The second board encounter between railway men Himanshu Sharma and S Ravi Teja also ended in same fashion. Third seed M R Lalith Babu beat team mate Mary Ann Gomes in long battle which took more than five and half hour to finish. This crucial victory took Lalith to second spot with 8 points along with Himanshu Sharma.

A pack of seven players including top seed Aravindh Chithambaram are at joint fourth spot with seven and half points. Arvindh beat Fenil Shah of Gujarat and has the company of Debashis Das, Arghyadip Das, Deepan Chakkravarthy, S Satyapragyan, Nitin S and S Ravi Teja at point table.

Important Results (Round-10) :- GM Swapnil Dhopade of RLYS (9) drew with IM S Satyapragyan of AI (7.5); IM S Ravi Teja of RLYS (7.5) drew with GM Himanshu Sharma of RLYS (8); GM M R Lalith Babu of PSPB (8) beat WGM Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB (7); Fenil Shah of GUJ (6.5) lost to GM Aravindh Chithambaram of TN (7.5); GM Abhijit Kunte of PSPB (7) drew with IM Padmini Rout of PSPB (7); Niranjan Navalgund of TN (6.5) lost to GM Debashis Das of ODI (7.5); Koustav Chatterjee of WB (6.5) lost to GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of RLYS (7.5); IM P Shyaamnikhil of RLYS (7) drew with GM Sriram Jha of LIC (7); Udit Kamdar of GUJ (6.5) lost to IM S Nitin of RLYS (7.5); IM Arghyadip Das of RLYS (7.5) beat Jayakumaar S of TN (6.5); GM RR Laxman of RLYS (7) drew with Arjun Erigaisi of TEL (7); GM SL Narayanan of KER (7) beat Suyog Wagh of MAH (6); Rajesh Nayak of ODI (6.5) drew with IM Swayams Mishra of AI (6.5); Lokesh N of TN (6.5) drew with IM CRG Krishna of RLYS (6.5); Hemant Sharma of RLYS (6.5) drew with IM Varugeese Koshy of PSPB (6.5).