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Gurugram, August 24 (HS). It is not easy to win seven games in a row in a strong chess tournament like the National Championship. But Surya Shekhar Ganguly is in that kind of form. With four rounds remaining, he has seven points, reducing his lead to one point on Friday.
The top seed from Kolkata has dropped significantly from his peak rating of 2676 in 2016 – it now stands at 2583 – but he is doing quite well against his opponents at RPS International School.
Surya Shekhar is followed by five players – defending champion S.P. Sethuraman, Diptayan Ghosh, Karthik Venkataraman, Aronayak Ghosh and Himal Gusain with six points.
On the top board, playing the black side of the Ruy Lopez opening against city-mate Sayantan Das, he had the better position early on and reached an advantageous knight-and-pawn ending. His queenside pawn helped him win in 64 moves.
On the second board, Deep Sengupta and Aronya played out a 73-move draw in the English Opening, while on the third, Sethuraman needed only 32 moves to beat C.R.G. Krishna in a Queen's Gambit Declined Game. The day also saw 11-year-old Madhavendra Sharma beat N.R. Vignesh, a Grandmaster 506 Elo points higher than him.
Important Results (7th Round)—-
Sayantan Das (RSPB) 5.5 lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (PSPB) 7.
Deep Sengupta (PSPB) 5.5 drew with Aronayak Ghosh (RSPB) 6.
SP Sethuraman (PSPB) 6 defeated CRG Krishna (RSPB) 5.
Diptayan Ghosh (RSPB) 6 defeated S. Nitin (RSPB) 5.
Nilesh Saha (RSPB) 5 lost to Karthik Venkataraman (AP) 6.
M.R. Venkatesh (PSPB) 5 lost to Himal Gusain (RSPB) 6.
M.R. Lalit Babu (AP) 5.5 drew with Swapnil Dhopade (Maharashtra) 5.5.
Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) 5.5 defeated Dinesh K. Sharma (LIC) 4.5.
P. Iniyan (TN) 5 drew with Vignesh Advaith Vemula (TS) 5.
Mitrabha Guha (RSPB) 5.5 defeated Shubhi Gupta (UP) 4.5.
N.R. Vignesh (RSPB) 5 drew with Madhavendra Sharma (MP) 5.
Mukund Agarwala (Gujarat) 4.5, N.R.Vishakh (RSPB) 5.5 lost.
J. Deepan Chakravarthy (RSPB) 5 drew with Samyak Dharewa (Ben).