Two share lead

National Open Senior Chess Championship 2018

Report by I.A Ganesh Babu S

GM Aravindh Chithambaram and GM Anurag Mhamal jointly lead the 2018 National Senior Open Chess Championship with 6.0 points out of 7.0 rounds. On the second spot seven players GM Vaibhav Suri, GM Sengupta Deep, GM Vishnu Prasanna, GM Swapnil Dhopade, IM Stany, Sammed Jayakumar Shete and G B Harshavardhan are with 5.5 points each.

Overnight leader GM Aravindh Chithambaram was paired against GM Deep Sengupta. They both agreed for a draw after reaching position of Rook and Bishop against Rook and opposite coloured bishop with four pawns each.

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Similarly, the encounter between GM Vishnu Prasanna and GM Vaibhav Suri game ended with the draw in 38 moves.

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy messed up from the better position and sacrificed a piece in order to attack on the king side. It could have ended in a draw by perpetual checks, but Deepan was overambitious and made a blunder.  The game in favour of GM Anurag Mhamal.

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IM P D S Girinath was simply outplayed by IM G A Stany in a 41 move battle. Other notable results were Sammed Jayakumar Shete won against IM Swayams mishra and G B Harshavardhan defeated GM M R Venkatesh.

GM Swapnil S Dhopade stood better over IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy and won the game in 57 moves.

Pairings

Round 8