Tirupathi: 50th National Challenger Chess Championship heading for a close finish as at the end of penultimate round, third seed Debashis Das and Tamil Nadu youngster G Akash are sharing the lead with nine and half points after registering crucial victories in the twelfth round encounters against Abhilash Reddy of Andhra Pradesh and Dinesh Sharma of LIC respectively.
Opting for declined variation in Queen’s Gambit, Debashis maneuvered his double rooks to good effect to garner full points after 74 moves while Akash set-aside his the last round debacle to register a comfortable victory over seasoned International Master Dinesh Sharma of LIC in a French defence game.
Fide Master Diptayan Ghosh of West Bengal is occupying the lone second spot with nine points after signing the truce with VAV Rajesh of Tamilnadu. Abilash Reddy along with Bitan Banerjee of West Bengal and Sagar Shah of Maharashtra are at joint third place with eight and half points. Banerjee defeated K Praneeth Surya of Andhra Pradesh and Shah got better off International Master Rahul Shetty of Air India in the penultimate round.
Final round of the championship will be held on Monday morning followed by closing ceremony at 3 pm.
Important Results
Round-12 :- Abhilash Reddy M L of Andhra Pradesh (8.5) lost to IM Debashis Das of Odisha (9.5); FM Rajesh VAV of Tamilnadu (8) drew with FM Diptayan Ghosh of West Bengal (9); G Akash of Tamilnadu (9.5) beat IM Dinesh Sharma of LIC (7.5); IM S Satyapragyan of Air India (8) drew with Arun Karthik R of Tamilnadu (8); IM Sudhakar Babu of Indian Bank (8) drew with IM Swayams Mishra of Odisha (8); IM Saptarshi Roy of Railways (8) drew with Anurag Mhamal of Goa (8); Syed Anwar Shazuli of Railways (8) drew with IM Suvrajit Saha of Railways (8); Sanjay N of Karnataka (8) drew with IM Singh D P of Railways (8); Arindam Mukherjee of Railways (8) drew with IM Praveen Kumar C of Railways (8); Bitan Banerjee of West Bengal (8.5) beat K Praneeth Surya of Andhra Pradesh (7.5); IM Ramnathan Balasubramaniam of Railways (8) drew with IM Murali Krishnan B T of Railways (8); IM Atanu Lahiri of LIC (8) drew with Sidhant Mohapatra of Odisha (8); CRG Krishna of Andhra Pradesh (8) drew with Pratik Patil of Maharashtra (8); Ravi Teja S of Andhra Pradesh (8) drew with Shashikant Kutwal of Railways (8); Arvind Shastry of Karnataka (8) drew with Ram S Krishnan of Tamilnadu (8); IM Rahul Shetty of Air India (7.5) lost to Sagar Shah of Maharashtra (8.5); Prakash G B of Indian Bank (7.5) drew with Phadke Sohan of Maharashtra (8); Karthikeyan P of PSPB (8) beat IM Anup Deshmukh of LIC (7); Prince Bajaj of Delhi (8) beat IM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury of Railways (7); Praveen Prasad of Andhra Pradesh (7.5) drew with IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh of Tamilnadu (7.5); FM Ramakrishna J of Andhra Pradesh (7) lost to Narayanan S L of Kerala (8); Rajib Dhar of Assam (7) lost to IM Girinath PDS of Railways (8); IM Varugeese Koshy of PSPB (7) lost to FM Sayantan Das of West Bengal (8); Utkal Ranjan Sahoo of Odisha (7) lost to Akash Thakur of Railways (7.5); IM P Konguvel of PSPB (7.5) beat Lakshmi Narayanan M V of Tamilnadu (6.5).
