National Chess Championship: Ganguly maintains lead as fellow Kolkatan Ghosh inches closer

Signing peace may have been the trend on the top boards on Sunday, but Aronyak Ghosh bucked it. And his win against Arjun Adireddy has made the closing stage of the National chess championship a bit more interesting, as he brought down the lead of fellow-Kolkatan Surya Shekhar Ganguly to just half-a-point.

The top seed, who had to settle for a draw for a second successive day, is on eight points, with only two rounds to go. Aronyak is in the sole second position with 7.5 points.

They are followed on seven points by 13 players, including seeds third to fifth – S.P. Sethuraman, Diptayan Ghosh and Karthik Venkataraman. The ninth-seeded Aronyak, who faced Slav Defence from his younger rival, won in 63 moves, with his pawn poised for promotion.

On the first board, Sethuraman opted for an Italian Game against Ganguly. Both the seasoned Grandmasters went on to find accurate moves nearly all the time and reached an equal ending featuring rook, knight and opposite-coloured bishops. They agreed to split the point on the 31st move.

On the second board, the impressive Ajay Karthikeyan held Diptayan after employing Semi-Slav Defence. The game was drawn in 23 moves following the repetition of the same position.