Tamil Nadu Grandmaster D Gukesh defeated former national champion Abhijeet Gupta  (PSPB) in the penultimate round to share the lead with overnight sole leader second seed Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana, at the 58th edition of Senior National Chess Championship at Ganges Club, here on Wednesday.

In top board battles in the tenth round, Arjun Erigaisi agreed to split the point with GM  P Iniyan (TN) after 41 moves while defending champion Aravindh Chithambaram and Delhi GM r Aryan Chopra shook hands after 63 moves signalling a drawn result.  

Playing with dark colour pieces in Nimzo-Indian Samisch variation, Gukesh showed immense discipline and skills in the endgame to beat Abhijeet in 64 moves to be at the top of the points table of this Rupees thirty lakh prize money event in which six lakh is reserved for the winner. 

With eight points in the kitty, Gukesh and Arjun are now enjoying a slender half-point lead over nearest contenders Aravindh Chithambaram, former champion Sethuraman S P, Aryan Chopra, Mitrabha Guha, Iniyan P, Visakh N R and Pranav V with one round to go.

Meanwhile, Utsab Chatterjee, Anustoop Biswas of West Bengal and Sambit Panda of Odisha completed their requirements to achieve nine-game International Master Norms during the event and many players are eyeing to complete their international title norms in the final round.

Earlier the penultimate round was inaugurated by Shri Bhanu Bhaskar IPS, ADG Kanpur Zone in presence of Dr Sanjay Kapoor, President All India Chess Federation. 

Important Results:-

Round – 10:- GM Erigaisi Arjun of Telangana (8) drew with GM Iniyan P of Tamil Nadu (7.5);; GM Swapnil S Dhopade of Railways (6.5) lost to GM Sethuraman S P of PSPB (7.5); GM Lalith Babu M R of PSPB (6.5) lost to IM Pranav V of Tamil Nadu (7.5); GM Visakh N R of Railways (7.5) beat IM Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal (6.5); GM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal (7.5) beat Sambit Panda of Odisha (6.5);

GM Karthikeyan Murali of PSPB (7) beat IM Ratnakaran K of Railways (6.5); IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete of Maharashtra (6.5) drew with GM Adhiban B of PSPB (6.5); GM Deep Sengupta of PSPB (7) beat Utsab Chatterjee of West Bengal (6); GM Deepan Chakravarthy of Railways (6) lost to IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh of Maharashtra (7); GM Harsha Bharathakoti of Telangana (7) beat IM Harshvardhan G B of Tamil Nadu (6); IM Aditya Mittal of Maharashtra (7) beat FM Aaryan Varshney of Delhi (6);

HSB