National chess championship: Abhijeet Gupta joins Koustav Chatterjee in the lead

Abhijeet’s resounding victory in 39 moves in the 10th round over N.R. Vignesh saw him match Koustav’s tally of eight points.

Abhijeet Gupta produced a clinical performance on Saturday to take a joint lead at the National Chess Championship. | Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO by VELANKANNI RAJ

Former champion Abhijeet Gupta returned to joint lead in style when he outplayed N. R. Vignesh in 39 moves in the 10th round of the MPL National chess championship in New Delhi on Saturday.

After the Bengal boys, overnight leader Koustav Chatterjee and Mitrabha Guha. drew in 59 moves and Tamil Nadu mates S. P. Sethuraman and L. R. Srihari signed peace in 45 moves, Abhijeet’s resounding victory saw him match Koustav’s tally of eight points.

Sharing the third spot at 7.5 points are Sethuraman, Mitrabha, Srihari, Aronyak Ghosh, Karthik Venkataraman and N. B. Hari Madhavan.

Abhijeet, who headed the field after winning the first five rounds before losing the next two, produced a clinical performance after Vignesh erred on the 26th move.

Vignesh’s decision to sacrifice a central pawn for some kingside initiative backfired. Before long, Abhijeet marshalled his resources to target the white king, castled on the queen’s side.

By the time Vignesh realised the enormity of the danger, he found himself within eight moves of being checkmated. Immediately, he resigned before making the 40th move.

Like Abhijeet, Aronyak also won with black pieces against Anuj Shrivatri, in just 30 moves.

N. B. Hari Madhavan punched above his weight to hurt seasoned Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda by inflicting a 57-move defeat.

Karthik Venkataraman expectedly beat S. Dhananjay to be part of the six-player group chasing the leaders.

Leading results: 10th round: Koustav Chatterjee (8) drew with Mitrabha Guha (7.5); S. P. Sethuraman (7.5) drew with L. R. Srihari (7.5); N. R. Vignesh (6.5) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (8); M. R. Venkatesh (7) drew with N. R. Visakh (7); Anuj Shrivatri (6.5) lost to Aronyak Ghosh (7.5); Karthik Venkataraman (7.5) bt S. Dhananjay (6.5); N. B. Hari Madhavan (7.5) bt Sandipan Chanda (6.5); Deep Sengupta (7) bt P. Iniyan (6.5); Leon Mendonca (6.5) drew with Utsab Chatterjee (6.5); P. Karthikeyan (6.5) drew with M. Shyam Sundar (6.5); V. Varun (6) lost to P. Shyaamnikhil (7); Saravana Krishna (6) lost to Sayantan Das (7); Yash Bharadia (6) lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy (7); Mehar Chinna Reddy (7) bt Subhayan Kundu (6); Ajay Krishna (7) bt Adireddy Arjun (6).