National Chess Championship 2024: Siddhant Gawai takes half-a-point off Abhijeet Gupta; Surya Shekhar continues to lead

Shubhi Gupta and Kiran Manisha Mohanty fought hard against top seed Surya Shekhar Ganguly and defending champion S.P. Sethuraman, respectively, but both had to drop the point.

Siddhant Gawai, who drew with Abhijeet Gupta in the National chess championship at Gurugram. | Photo Credit: P. K. Ajith Kumar

Gender may be a hot topic in sport now, but chess knows no gender.

Two of the top three boards in the third round of the 61st National championship featured female players at the RPS International School on Monday. Shubhi Gupta and Kiran Manisha Mohanty fought hard against top seed Surya Shekhar Ganguly and defending champion S.P. Sethuraman, respectively, but both had to drop the point.

Siddhant Gawai, however, managed to take half-a-point off the second seed Abhijeet Gupta. The 17-year-old from Nagpur was understandably elated after his draw with his far more experienced rival.

“This is my best result in chess,” he said after their game ended in 67 moves, with Abhijeet, who played English Opening, giving perpetual checks. Gawai’s Elo rating of 2057 points 526 less than his rival.

Shubhi Gupta (left) and Suray Shekhar Ganguly at the National chess. | Photo Credit: P. K. Ajith Kumar

Abhijieet wasn’t the only Grandmaster to draw, though. Brothers N.R. Vignesh and N.R. Visakh were held by Arshpreet Singh and Sai Santosh Gyana, respectively. Pratyaksh Goel and Soumick Bandopadhyay signed peace with their Grandmaster opponents J. Deepan Chakravarthy and Sriram Jha, respectively.

With eight rounds remaining, 24 players are sharing the lead on three points.

Important results (third round):

Shubhi Gupta (UP) 2 lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (PSPB) 3; 

Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) 2.5 drew with Siddhant Gawai (Mah) 2.5;

Kiran Manisha Mohanty (LIC) 2 lost to S.P. Sethuraman (PSPB);

Diptayan Ghosh (RSPB) 3 bt Madhvendra Sharma (MP);

Alluri Bhaskara Reddy (AP) 2 lost to Karthik Venkataraman (AP) 3; 

P. Iniyan (TN) 3 bt Jval Patel (Guj) 2;

Harshit Sahu (Odi) 2 lost to Sankalp Gupta (Mah) 3; 

Mitrabha Guha (RSPB) 3 bt Jyotshnav Talukdar (Odi) 2;

Aadik Lenin (Ker) 2 lost to Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB) 3;

N.R. Vignesh (RSPB) 2.5 drew with Arshpreet Singh (Har) 2.5;

Sai Santosh Gyana (AP) 2.5 drew with N.R. Visakh (RSPB) 2.5;

Deep Sengupta (PSPB) 3 bt Kheerthi Ganta (Tel) 2;

M.R. Lalith Babu (AP) 3 bt Tanmay Rajbongshi (Asm) 2;

Prathamesh Sharla (Mah) 2 lost to Sayantan Das (RSPB) 3;

Neelash Saha (RSPB) 3 bt Roshan Sivan (TN) 2.