Shyam, Ghosh lead field in Mayor's Chess

International Master P Shyam Nikhil defeated GM Sandipan Chanda to join GM Diptayan Ghosh on the top of the leader board at the end of the 6th round of the Mumbai Mayor's International Open Chess Tournament today.
Both are sharing the lead with 5.5 points followed by 8 others with 5 points in 2nd place in the tournament being conducted at the Mount Litera School International in Bandra- Kurla Complex.
IM Shyam, while playing with black pieces against GM Chanda, opted for the not-so-popular Benko Gambit. With regular exchange of the pieces, Chanda who had an advantage of 2 bishops, was forced to exchange a bishop for the knight by his rival.

Although Chanda managed to get a passed pawn, Shyam exchanged his pieces to play an end game with 3 pawn vs pawn and bishop and won this ending comfortably in 59 moves.
The game between GM Swapnil Dhopade and Shailesh Dravid ended in a draw in 35 moves after both the players avoided taking risks and shared points.
The game on the 3rd board, played between IM Visakh N R and Himal Gusain, lasted for 74 moves with a draw as the end product.
Top 10 Results (Round 6): GM Ghosh Diptayan bt GM Amonatov Farrukh (TJK); GM Swapnil S Dhopade drew with Shailesh Dravid; IM Visakh N R drew with Himal Gusain; IM Shyam Nikhil P bt GM Sandipan Chanda; GM Boris Grachev (RUS) bt Arjun Erigaisi; GM Ziaur Rahman (BAN) drew with FM Raghunandan K S; GM Shardul Gagare drew with Vikramaditya Kulkarni; Aradhya Garg 2274 drew with GM Evgeny Gleizerov (RUS) 2506; IM Krishna C R G drew with Akash P Iyer 2257; IM Abhishek Kelkar bt Hemant Sharma.