Senior National Chess Championship: Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh share lead with 5.5 points

Arjun Erigaisi and D. Gukesh shared the lead at the end of the sixth round of the MPL 58th Senior National Chess Championship at Ganges in Kanpur on Monday.

With 5.5 points in the kitty, young Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana and D. Gukesh of Tamil Nadu jumped to the joint top spot.

Playing with white pieces in the Two Knights Game, Arjun outwitted Commonwealth champion Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB in 46 moves.

GM Erigaisi Arjun of Telangana beat GM Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB in the fifth round. (Picture: AICF)

Arjun upset Abhijeet Gupta to register fifth win of the tournament

Arjun turned out to be the star of the day and recorded one of the best wins of his career. Arjun got off to a brilliant start and maintained his upperhand against GM Abhijeet Gupta.

Gukesh halted the impressive showing of IM Koustav Chatterjee in the 61-move championship out of Rossolimo's variation in the Sicilian Defense to join Arjun at the top of the points table.

In another important encounter in the sixth round, top seed B Adhiban of PSPB split the points with former champion and teammate Lalith Babu MR.

GM Gukesh D of Tamil Nadu beat IM Koustav Chatterjee of West Bengal. (Picture: AICF)

Defending champion Aravindh Chithamabaram got the better of International Master Aronyak Ghosh and Grandmaster Aryan Chopra of Delhi, beating International Master Ravi Teja of Railways.

Aryan Chopra, Lalith Babu, Aravindh Chitambaram, Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal and Iniyan P of Tamil Nadu are now occupying the second spot with 5 points. Mitrabha and Iniyan defeated Vignesh NR of Railways and Shreyansh Daklia of Chhattisgarh respectively in their sixth round matches.

Results

Round 6

GM Erigaisi Arjun of Telangana (5.5) beat GM Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB (4.5)

IM Koustav Chatterjee of West Bengal (4.5) lost to GM Gukesh D of Tamil Nadu (5.5)

GM Lalith Babu M R of PSPB (5) drew with GM Adhiban B of PSPB (4.5)

GM Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamil Nadu (5) beat IM Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal (4)

IM Ravi Teja S of Railways (4) lost to GM Aryan Chopra of Delhi (5)

GM Deep Sengupta of PSPB (4.5) drew with IM Sayantan Das of Railways (4.5)

Shreyansh Daklia of Chhattisgarh (4) lost to GM Iniyan P of Tamil Nadu (5)

GM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal (5) beat IM Vignesh N R of Railways (4)

GM Harsha Bharathakoti of Telangana (4.5) drew with GM Laxman RR of Railways (4.5)

GM Abhimanyu Puranik of Maharashtra (4) drew with Sambit Panda of Odisha (4.5)

IM Srihari LR of Tamil Nadu (4) drew with GM Sethuraman S P of PSPB (4)

IM Sidhant Mohapatra of Railways (3.5) lost to GM Visakh NR of Railways (4.5)

Utsab Chatterjee of West Bengal (4.5) beat GM Arjun Kalyan of Tamil Nadu (3.5)

IM Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh (4) drew with GM Swapnil Dhopade of Railways (4)

IM Aditya Mittal of Maharashtra (4.5) beat FM Ayush Sharma of Madhya Pradesh (3.5).