Dhopade moves closer to the title

By Gopakumar

Ahmedabad (21 Aug 17) :- With just two rounds remaining, overnight leader Grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade of Railways moved close to secure his second national challenger title after splitting the point with third seed Lalith Babu in the eleventh round of the 55th National Challengers Chess Championship here at Karnavati Club on Monday.

Playing with white pieces in Symmetrical variation of English Opening, Lalith tried hard to derail Dhopade’s march in the event but the 2015 champion stood firm to make a peace treaty to maintain his one-point lead. The second board battle between Himanshu Sharma and Aravindh Chithambaram also ended without decisive result after 56 moves.

The top two board’s results helped Grandmasters Deepan Chakkravarthy of Railways and Debashis Das of Odisha to move to the joint second spot in the company of Lalith and Himanshu after registering resounding victories.. Deepan outwitted S Satyapragyan of Air India while Das put it across Arghyadip Das.

Eight players including top two seeds Aravindh Chithamabram and S L Narayanan are at joint sixth place with 8 points

In the penultimate round tomorrow, Dhopade takes on Das while Deepan and Lalith face Himanshu and RR Laxman, respectively.

Important Results (Round-11) :- GM Lalith Babu M R of GUJ (8.5) drew with GM Swapnil Dhopade of RYLS (9.5); GM Himanshu Sharma of RLYS (8.5) drew with GM Aravindh Chithamabaram of TN (8); GM Debashis Das of ODI (8.5) beat IM Arghyadip Das of RLYS (7.5); GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of RLYS (8.5) beat IM S Satyapragyan of AI (7.5); IM S Nitin of RLYS (8) drew with IM S Ravi Teja of RLYS (8); Arjun Erigaisi of TEL (7) lost to GM SL Narayanan of KER (8); GM Abhijit Kunte of PSPB (7.5) drew with GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury of RLYS (7.5); IM Padmini Rout of PSPB (7.5) drew with IM Shyaamnikhil P of RLYS (7.5); IM Sameer Kathmale of MAH (7) lost to GM RR Laxman of RLYS (8); GM Sriram Jha of LIC (7.5) drew with Akash PC Iyer of TN (7.5); IM K Rathnakaran of RLYS (7) lost to Sammed Jaykumar Shete of MAH (8); WGM Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB (7.5) drew with Baivab Mishra of ODI (7.5); IM Swayams Mishra of AI (7.5) beat Lokesh N of TN (6.5); IM CRG Krishna of RLYS (7) drew with Raja Rithvik of TEL (7); Kushagra Mohan of TEL (7) drew with Hemant Sharm of RLYS (7)