National Chess C'ship: Aravindh, Karthikeyan share lead
Aravindh Chithambaram came up with a late bishop-sacrifice and crafted a much-needed victory over fellow Grandmaster Tejas Bakre in the 11th round of the National Chess Championship.
Published : Nov 28, 2016 21:40 IST
Aravindh Chithambaram came up with a late bishop-sacrifice and crafted a much-needed victory over fellow Grandmaster Tejas Bakre in the 11th round of the National Chess Championship here on Monday.
Chithambaram’s 48-move triumph raised his tally to 8.5 points and kept him in the lead with M. Karthikeyan, who scored over Abhishek Kelkar. Karthikeyan overcame a tough challenge in 62 moves in an endgame where his three extra pawns proved decisive.
Top seed Vidit Gujarathi, who started the day in the joint lead, fell back following a 44-move draw with his mentor and coach Abhijit Kunte.
The day’s other two winners were Ravi Teja and S. Nitin.
The results (the points, in brackets, include those gained from walkovers):
11th round: Aravindh Chithambaram (8.5) bt Tejas Bakre (6); M. Karthikeyan (8.5) bt Abhishek Kelkar (4); Abhijit Kunte (6) drew with Vidit Gujarathi (8); S. Ravi Teja (7) bt D. B. Chandra Prasad (4.5); Sriram Jha (2.5) lost to S. Nitin (6.5); R. R. Laxman (6.5) and B. Adhiban (7.5) bye.
12th round pairings: Vidit-Chithambaram; Nitin-Karthikeyan; Kelkar-Adhiban; Laxman-Kunte; Prasad-Jha; Bakre-Teja.