Sethuraman SP maintained lead at 60th NATIONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

Pune, 22nd August: Sethuraman SP of PSPB maintained lead with 6.5 points at 60th National Chess Championships 2023 which is being organized by Maharashtra Chess Association and played at the Boxing Hall , Shree Shivchatrapati Kreeda Sankul, Mhalunge Balewadi, Pune

Round 7 at the 60th National Chess Championship being held in Pune, was a day of draws. There were as many as 5 draws on the top 10 boards. Out of the top 5 boards, there were 3 draws.

Tournament leader, GM SP Sethuraman, playing on the top board, played a well fought out draw against 2nd ranked GM Abhimanyu Puranik. The game was very complicated and both players played safe, and accepted a draw. Sethuraman continues to lead the tournament with a score of 6.5/7.

GM Mitraba Guha, playing on board 2 against the in form IM Aronyak Ghosh played out a quick draw due to 3 fold repetition, and finished his game in under 30 minutes.

Top seed GM Abhijeet Gupta, playing on board 3, lost against IM Neelash Saha. Neelash, with the black pieces, capitalized on Gupta’s blunder, and converted the game smoothly in the end.

IM Anuj Shrivatri, playing against GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly on board 4, played a solid game with the white pieces, and held the legendary GM to a draw.

Following are the results: 7th round: White and black pieces:
Sethuraman, S.P.(6.5pts)(PSPB) drew with Abhimanyu Puranik(6pts)(AAI);
Mitrabha Guha(6pts)(WB) drew with Aronyak Ghosh(6pts)(RSPB);
Abhijeet Gupta(5pts)(PSPB) lost to Neelash Saha(6pts)(RSPB);
Anuj Shrivatri(5.5pts)(MP) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly(5.5pts)(PSPB);
Diptayan Ghosh(5pts)(WB) vs Arghyadip Das(5pts)(RSPB);
Sidhant Mohapatra(5pts)(RSPB) lost to Visakh NR(6pts)(RSPB);
Iniyan P(5pts)(6pts)(TN) bt Venkatesh, M.R.(5pts)(PSPB);
Mehar Chinna Reddy C.H.(5pts)(RSPB) vs Vignesh NR(5pts)(RSPB);
Bhoopnath (5pts)(Bih) lost to Deep Sengupta(6pts)(PSPB);
Shyaamnikhil P(5.5pts)(RSPB)drew with Srihari, L R(5.5pts)(TN);
Deepan Chakkravarthy J.(5.5pts)(RSPB) drew with Apoorv Kamble(5.5pts)(KAR);
Akash G(5.5pts)(TN) bt Kolla, Bhaavan(5pts)(AP);
John Veny Akkarakaran(4.5pts)(KER) lost to Vishnu Prasanna. V(5.5pts)(TN);
Krishna, CRG(5.5pts)(RSPB) bt Sharsha, Backer(4.5pts)(KER);
Kaivalya Nagare(4.5pts)(MAH) lost to Soham Kamotra(5.5pts)(J&K);
Sriram Jha(5.5pts)(LIC)bt Ambarish Sharma(4.5pts)(WB);
Vignesh Vemula(5.5pts)(TEL) bt Suyog Wagh(4.5pts)(MAH);
Rajesh Nayak(5.5pts)(ODI)bt Harshit Pawar(4.5pts)(DEL);
Vedant Garg(5.5pts)(CHD) bt Shreyans Shah(4.5pts)(MAH);