Aurangabad: Former World junior champion Abhijeet Gupta battled for 66 moves to down M.R. Venkatesh and maintained his half-a-point lead over G.N. Gopal and Deepan Chakkravarthy in the eighth round of the National chess championship at the MIT campus, here on Sunday.
On a day when 17 out of 24 boards provided decisive contests, Abhijeet reached 6.5 points. Gopal and Venkatesh (six points each) also won with black pieces.
The day's biggest upset was once again provided by Padmini Rout. This diminutive Bhubaneswar-girl brought down former champion B. Adhiban in 58 moves, following her victories over defending champion Parimarjan Negi and M.R. Lalith Babu.
The Hindu