National Chess Championship: Ganguly in sole lead heading into final round

If Ganguly wins his final-round encounter on Tuesday, he will be the champion. But, if he doesn’t, the others would have chances.

Indian chess grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly (left) drew with Aronyak Ghosh at the National Chess Championship in Gurugram. | Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap/ The Hindu

Seven straight wins, followed by three straight draws: Still, Surya Shekhar Ganguly is in the sole lead position going into the final round of the National Chess Championship.

After drawing with Aronyak Ghosh in the 10th round at the RPS International School, he is on 8.5 points. His younger rival was the only one who could have caught up with him at the top of the table. But Aronyak needed to win against Ganguly, something no one has managed here.

The top-board clash between the two Kolkatans ended in a quiet draw in 30 moves after Aronyak adopted Slav Defence. Only the two kings, and pawns – seven of them on either side – remained when the peace treaty was signed.

That meant Aronyak would move to eight points. He was joined in the shared second position later by four others – Neelash Saha, who upset defending champion S.P. Sethuraman, former champions Karthik Venkataraman and M.R. Lalith Babu, and Himal Gusain.

If Ganguly wins his final-round encounter on Tuesday, he will be the champion. But, if he doesn’t, the others would have chances.

It could be an interesting finish to what has been a fascinating tournament.

Important results (10th round)

Surya Shekhar Ganguly (PSPB) 8.5 drew with Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB) 8; S.P. Sethuraman (PSPB) 7 lost to Neelash Saha (RSPB) 8; P. Shyaam Nikhil (RSPB) 7.5 Diptayan Ghosh (RSPB) 7.5; Karthik Venkataraman (AP) 8 bt Ajay Karthikeyan (TN) 7; Sammed Shete (Mah) 7.5 drew with Mitrabha Guha (RSPB) 7.5; Himal Gusain (RSPB) 8 bt Uktal Sahoo (Odi) 7; S. Nitin (RSPB) 7 lost to M.R. Lalith Babu (AP) 8; N.R. Vignesh (RSPB) 7.5 bt Sriram Jha (LIC) 7; Neelotpal Das (PSPB) 6.5 lost to Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) 7.5; Sankalp Gupta (Mah) 7.5 bt R.R. Laxman (RSPB) 6.5; N.R. Visakh (RSPBH) 7.5 bt Nihal Swarna .5; Vignesh Advaith Vemula (TS) 6 drew with Sayantan Das (RSPB) 6; Swapnil Dhopade (Mah) 7.5 bt A. Balkishan (Kar) 6.5; Dinesh Kumar Jaganathan (TN) 7 drew with J. Deepan Chakravarthy (RSPB) 7; Arjun Adireddy (TS) 7 drew with S. Ravi Teja (AP) 7.