National chess championship: Koustav stuns Sethuraman to take lead

The eighth-seeded Koustav now leads the field with 7.5 points, half a point ahead of Sethuraman, former champion Abhijeet Gupta and youngster L. R. Srihari.

Representative Image: With every passing move, Koustav improved his position and eventually came within four moves of check-mating the white king when Sethuraman chose to give up. | Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Koustav Chatterjee pulled off the biggest upset of the MPL National chess championship by bringing down top seeded overnight leader S. P. Sethuraman in 50 moves in the ninth round in New Delhi on Friday.

The eighth-seeded Bengal boy now leads the field with 7.5 points, half a point ahead of Sethuraman, former champion Abhijeet Gupta and youngster L. R. Srihari.

Going by Sethuraman’s impressive run so far in the competition, the result was hardly expected. But all credit to Koustav for seizing the opportunity after his rival’s dubious choice on the 22nd move.

Thereafter, Koustav took his time to tighten the noose on his illustrious rival. With every passing move, Koustav improved his position and eventually came within four moves of check-mating the white king when Sethuraman chose to give up.

Srihari scripted the day’s second biggest surprise by bringing down fourth seed Leon Mendonca in 37 moves. Srihari punished a passive Leon by launching a fierce attack on the black castled king and moved within 12 moves of delivering a checkmate when the youngster resigned.

A second straight victory lifted Abhijeet to the joint second spot. In an equal battle, Deep Sengupta’s poor knight retreat on the 24th move saw Abhijeet quickly seize the initiative and close the game on the 30th move.

Leading results:

Eighth round: S. P. Sethuraman (7) lost to Koustav Chatterjee (7.5); Mitrabha Guha (7) drew with Karthik Venkataraman (6); Abhijeet Gupta (7) bt Deep Sengupta (6); L. R. Srihari (7) bt Leon Mendonca (6); Aronyak Ghosh (6.5) drew with N. B. Hari Madhavan (6.5); P. Iniyan (6.5) drew with M. R. Venkatesh (6.5); N. R. Visakh (6.5) bt Mehar Chinna Reddy (6); Shyam Sundar (6) drew with Ajay Krishna (6); N. R. Vignesh (6.5) bt Avinash Ramesh (5.5); P. Shyaamnikhil (6) drew with K. Saravana Krishna (6); Sandipan Chanda (6.5) bt Mayank Chakraborty (5.5); Subhayan Kundu (5.5) drew with Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (6); Anees Mohamed (5.5) lost to Anuj Shrivatri (6.5); S. Dhananjay (6.5) bt Audi Ameya (5.5); Arjun Adireddy (6) drew with Vedant Panesar (6).