Eight Players Share Lead
By Arvind Aaron
Eight players are leading with full four points after four rounds in the National Amateur Chess Championship that is taking place at New Delhi on Nov 16, 2015.
None of the eight players include any of the top twenty seeds. Such is the progress of the favourites in the 11-round competition. The top seed P Shet Prajwal, second seed Chauhan Joy and fourth seed Ashutosh Kumar are among the large number of players tied for the second spot on 3.5 points.
The eight leaders on four points are M.P. Ajith (Kar), Alok Sinha (Del), Shravan Nilkanth (Mah), Omkar Kadav (Mah), B Arul Senthil (TN), Abhishek Jaiswal (UP), T Shyam Sundar (TN) and Puskaraj Kamble (Mah).
Seven rounds remain to be played in this Rs.1 lakh prize money event that has attracted 319 players from across India. The World and Asian Amateur Championships are being organised on a regular basis and this event will act as the selection event from India. Amateur events are for those rated below 2000 Elo rating.
Three National Championships are taking place at the same time. National Premier at Tiruvarur (TN), National Women’s Premier at Kolkata and the National Amateur is on at Delhi. The All India Chess Federation is busy and the most active of chess bodies across the planet.