CHENNAI: International Master Nitin Senthilvel hasn’t put a foot wrong in the ongoing 13th Chennai Open International Grandmaster tournament on Thursday. After the conclusion of seven rounds, Nitin leads the field with 7 points.
Nitin registered a hard-fought 99-move victory on the top board against B Vignesh. Both players gave it their all but it was Nitin who rose to the occasion during crunch situations to bag the full point.
In the previous round, Nitin had defeated Armenian GM Baghdasaryan Vahe in an encounter that lasted 50 moves. Behind Nitin in the second position were Russian GM Savchenko Boris, the top seed, and IM LR Srihari on 6.0 points.
In the upset of the day, International Master Srijit Paul (Elo 2399) went down to Daakshin Arun (Elo 1927). Srijit clearly overlooked a sacrifice which resulted in a check-mate.
It also happened to be Srijit's second loss in-a-row to a lower-rated player. Further down, Samriddhaa Ghosh (Elo 1838) got the better of Grandmaster Ziatdinov Raset of USA.
Nitin will be taking on Savchenko in the eighth round on the top board on Friday. Srihari will be up against Aronyak Ghosh.
Results (Round 7): Nitin S (7.0) bt Vignesh B (5.5), Fedorov Alexei (Belarus) 5.5 drew with Savchenko Boris (Russia) 6.0, Abdyjapar Asyl (Kyrgyzstan) 5.5 drew with Tran Tuan Minh (Vietnam) 5.5, Konguvel Ponnuswamy (5.5) drew with Aronyak Ghosh (5.5), Saravana Krishnan P (5.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy J (5.5), Ajay Karthikeyan (5.5) drew with Baghdasaryan Vahe (Armenia) 5.5, Jubin Jimmy (5.0) lost to Srihari L R (6.0), Stupak Kirill (Belarus) 5.5 bt Pawar Harshit (4.5), Srijit Paul (4.5) lost to Daakshin Arun (5.5), Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vietnam) 5.5 bt Arpith S Bijoy (4.5), Prasannaa S (5.5) bt Harsh Suresh (4.5), Chaithanyaa K G (4.5) lost to Hari Madhavan N B (5.5)
