Suri, Nitin in joint lead at Commonwealth Chess

Local favourite Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri along with International Master S Nitin led the table with six points after round seven at the Commonwealth Chess Championship here today.

Playing with black pieces in Caro-Kann defence game which lasted 73 moves, Vaibhav signed the peace treaty with top seed Deep Sengupta to take his tally to six points while S Nitin set aside his sixth round debacle against Vaibhav to beat national sub junior champion Sankalp Gupta in 49 moves arrived out of French defence game.

With just two rounds to come in the Rs. 10 lakh championship, national champion M R Lalith Babu, Sankalp Gupta, Debashis Das, P Karthikeyan and Nubairshah Shaikh share the second spot on five and half points apiece.

 

Lalith Babu defeated former national champion G Akash while Debashis got better off International Master K Ratnakaran. Karthikeyan defeated International Master Kobese Watu of South Africa while Nubairshah put it across state mate Sammed Shete.

In the women's section that is part of the main event, Tania Sachev leads the tables with another fighting performance. The Delhi based player took her tally to a very impressive 5 points following a draw with Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy.

Earlier in the sixth round, Suri halted the dream run of International Master S Nitin who maintained a clean slate till then. Akash got better off Grandmaster Debashis Das and Sankalp Gupta defeated higher seeded Karthik Venkataraman.

Important Results Round-7 (Indians otherwise specified) :- IM Nitin S (6) beat Sankalp Gupta (5.5); GM Deep Sengupta (5) drew with GM Vaibhav Suri (6); GM Lalith Babu M R (5.5) beat IM Akash G (5.5); GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (5) drew with IM Tania Sachdev (5); GM Debashis Das (5.5) beat IM Ratnakaran K (4.5); GM Praveen Thipsay (5) drew with GM Abhijit Kunte (5); IM Karthik Venkataraman (5) drew with Suyog Wagh (5); IM Karthikeyan P (5.5) beat IM Kobese Watu of South Africa (4.5); Sammed Jaykumar Shete (4.5) lost to IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (5.5); Niranjan Navalgund (5) drew with GM S Kidambi (5); GM Swapnil Dhopade (4) v WIM Nandhidhaa PV (4.5); Moksh Amit Doshi (4) lost to GM Vishnu Prasanna V (5); FM Thilakarathne GMH (4) lost to IM Visakh NR (5); Rucha Pujari (4.5) drew with Tejas Bakre (4.5); GM Laxman RR (4.5) drew with Jubin Jimmy (4.5); Shantanu Bhambure (4) lost to Koustav Chatterjee (5); IM Siva Mahadevan (4) v Baivab Mishra (4); Mahitosh Dey (4) lost to Kushagra Mohan (5); Nisha Mohota (4.5) drew with GB Joshi (4.5); WIM Mahalakshmi M (5) beat Joy Pankaj Shah (4).

Important Results Round-6:- GM Vaibhav Suri beat IM Nitin S; IM Akash G beat GM Debashis Das; Sankalp Gupta beat IM Karthik Venkatraman; GM Deep Sengupta drew with Niranjan Navalgund; IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (4.5) drew with GM Lalith Babu M R; Suyog Wagh drew with IM Karthikeyan P ; GM S Kidambi drew with Praveen Thipsay; Abhijit Kunte beat FM Thilakarathne GMH; Ankit Gajwa lost to GM Deepan Chakkravarthy; Visakh NR drew with Moksh Amit Doshi; Tejas Bakre drew with Shantanu Bhambure; Baivab Mishra drew with GM Laxman RR; Tania Sachdev beat WIM Sakshi Chitlange; IM Ratnakaran K beat Bala Kannamma P; WFM Divya Deshmukh lost to Sammed Jaykumar Shete.