MPL 58th Senior National Chess Championship-2022 : Koustav on song; five share lead

Kanpur (27 Feb 22) :- International Master Koustav Chatterjee of West Bengal continued with his impressive show and downed fourth seed and two time national champion Karthikeyan Murali in the fifth round of the ongoing  MPL 58^th Senior National Chess Championship here Ganges Club here on Sunday.

Koustav Chatterjee (Photo by Aditya Sur Roy)

Playing black side of Steinitz Defence of Ruy Lopez opening, Koustav sacrificed his rook for bishop and pawn on 39^th move to garner full point against his fancied rival after 20 more moves. Earlier in the fourth round Koustav stunned fifth seed Sethuraman while in the third round he held top seed B Adhiban.

In other important fifth round encounters, former champion Grandmaster Lalith Babu M R of PSPB defeated Grandmaster Aryan Chopra of Delhi while much anticipated top board battle between young Grandmasters D Gukesh of Tamil Nadu and Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana ended in peace treaty after 46 moves arrived out of Semi Slav- Botvinnik System.

At the end of fifth round matches, second Arjun Erigaisi along with D Gukesh, Lalith Babu M R, Koustav Chatterjee and Commonwealth champion Abhijeet Gupta, who beat International Master Aditya Mittal are sharing the lead with four and half points. A pack of 14 players including top seed A Adhiban are now trailing behind the leaders with a drift of half point.

Earlier the fifth-round matches were inaugurated by Shri Satyadev Pachauri, Member of Parliament in presence of Dr Sanjay Kapoor, President All India Chess Federation. The sixth round matches of this eleven Swiss System tournament sponsored MPL Sports Foundation will be played on Monday morning.

Round – 5 :- GM Gukesh D of Tamilnadu (4.5) drew with GM Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana (4.5); GM Aryan Chopra of Delhi (4) lost to GM Lalith Babu M R of PSPB (4.5); GM Adhiban B of PSPB (4) drew with GM Harsha Bharathakoti of Telangana (4); GM Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB (4.5) beat IM Aditya Mittal of Maharashtra (3.5); IM Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal (4) drew with GM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal (4); GM Karthikeyan Murali of PSPB (3) lost to IM Koustav Chatterjee of West Bengal (4.5); IM Sidhant Mohapatra of Railways (3.5) drew with GM Abhimanyu Puranik of Maharashtra (3.5); FM Harshad S of Tamil Nadu (3) lost to GM Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamil Nadu (4); Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri of Telangana (3) lost to Deep Sengupta of PSPB (4); Sambit Panda of Odisha (4) beat GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of Railways (3); Jain Shrenhik Daklia of Chhattisgarh (3) lost to GM Iniyan P of Tami Nadu (4); GM Arjun Kalyan of Tamil Nadu (3.5) drew with IM Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh (3.5); GM Swapnil Dhopade of Railways (3.5) drew with FM Mohamed Anees of Tamil Nadu (3.5); IM Pranav V of Tamil Nadu (3.5) drew with Utsab Chatterjee of West Bengal (3.5); IM Ravi Teja S of Railways (4) beat FM Aradhya Garg of Delhi (3);  IM Sayantan Das of Railways (4) beat FM Suyog Wagh of Maharashtra (3); IM Vignesh N R of Railways (4) beat Sanket Chakravarty of West Bengal (3); GM Laxman R R of Railways (4) beat Anjaneyaa Phatak of Maharashtra (3); IM Nitin S of Railways (3.5) drew with CM Ojasva Singh of Madhya Pradesh (3.5); IM Himal Gusain of Railways (3) lost to Shreyansh Daklia of Chhattisgarh (4); IM Srihari L R (3.5) drew with Anustoop Biswas of West Bengal (3.5); GM Sethuraman S P of PSPB (3.5) beat Vedant Pimpalkhare of Maharashtra (3).

Round – 4 :- Arjun Erigaisi beat Ravi Teja S; Harsha Bharathakoti drew with Abhijeet Gupta; Utsab Chatterjee lost to Gukesh D; Anustoop Biswas lost to Aryan Chopra; Srijit Paul lost to Adhiban B; Karthikeyan Murali drew with Vignesh N R; Koustav Chatterjee beat Sethuraman S P; Puranik Abhimanyu drew with Laxman R R; Aravindh Chithambaram drew with Himal Gusain; Lalith Babu M R beat Shahil Dey; Deep Sengupta drew with Srihari L R; Deepan Chakkravarthy drew with Sidhant Mohapatra; Mitrabha Guha beat Ratnakaran K; Vedant Pimpalkhare drew with Arjun Kalyan; Aditya Mittal beat Ritviz Parab; Aronyak Ghosh beat Arpan Das; Iniyan P beat Kashish Manoj Jain; Aanjaneya Phatak beat Sankalp Gupta; Pradeep Pathak lost to Swapnil Dhopade; R Balasubramaniam lost to Pranav V.