Chennai Open: Nitin Senthilvel continues to stay in the lead

Eighth round: Nitin is held to a draw by Russian GM Boris Savchenko but still remains a full point ahead of the rest of the pack.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Two rounds remain in the tournament.

Nitin Senthilvel’s winning run was halted as he drew his eighth-round game in 68 moves against top-seed Boris Savchenko on Friday at the 13th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess tournament.

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Nitin continued to top the standings with 7.5 points, a full point ahead of his nearest rivals.

In second place behind the Indian IM with 6.5 points are: Savchenko, Alexei Fedorov (Belarus), Baghdasaryan Vahe (Armenia), Aronyak Ghosh, P. Konguvel, Himal Gusain, S. Prasannaa, Daakshin Arun and Ravichandran Siddharth (all India).

In upsets on the day, veteran International Master P. Konguvel defeated Vietnamese Grandmaster Tran Tuan Minh, while Candidate Master Daakshin Arun scored over fellow Indian Grandmaster P. Karthikeyan.

Two rounds remain in the 10-round Swiss tournament that concludes on June 26.

• Boris Savchenko (Russia) 6.5 points drew with S. Nitin 7.5 points,
• L. R. Srihari 6 lost to Aronyak Ghosh 6.5,
• Alexei Fedorov 6.5 beat Abdyjapar Asyl (Kyrgyzstan) 5.5,
• Tran Tuan Minh (Vietnam) 5.5 lost to P Konguvel 6.5,
• J. Deepan Chakkravarthy 6 drew with Aaryan Varshney 6,
• Kirill Stupak (Belarus) 6 drew with P. Saravana Krishnan 6,
• P. R. Hirthickkesh 6 drew with Ajay Karthikeyan 6,
• Baghdasaryan Vahe (Armenia) 6.5 beat Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vietnam) 5.5,
• N. B. Hari Madhavan 5.5 lost to Prasannaa S. 6.5,
• B. Vignesh 5.5 lost to Gusain Himal 6.5,
• Ravichandran Siddharth (6.5) beat Samriddhaa Ghosh 5.5,
• Daakshin Arun 6.5 beat P. Karthikeyan 5.5.