With just two rounds remaining, tournament leader Grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade of the Railways moved close to secure his second national challenger title with 9.5 points after splitting the point with third seed Lalith Babu in the eleventh round of the 55th National Challengers Chess Championship at the Karnavati Club here on Monday.
Playing with white pieces in symmetrical variation of the English Opening, Lalith tried hard to derail Dhopade's march in the event but the 2015 champion stood firm to make a peace treaty to maintain his one-point lead.
The second board battle between Himanshu Sharma and Aravindh Chithambaram also ended without a decisive result after 56 moves.
The top two board's results helped Grandmasters Deepan Chakkravarthy of the Railways and Debashis Das of Odisha to move to the joint second spot in the company of Lalith and Himanshu after registering resounding victories. Deepan outwitted S Satyapragyan of Air India while Das put it across Arghyadip Das.
As many as eight players including the top two seeds Aravindh Chithamabram and S.L. Narayanan are at joint sixth place with eight points.
In the penultimate round on Tuesday, Dhopade takes on Das while Deepan and Lalith face Himanshu and RR Laxman, respectively.
--IANS
sam/bg
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