Vaibhav Suri is playing competitive chess after quite some time. However, he is showing no signs of rustiness as he beat the second seeded Aravindh Chithambaram from the white side of an exchange French.

GM Vaibhav Suri beat Aravindh Chithambaram and has shot into the sole lead
The scoreline reads 1-0 in the favour of Vaibhav. But right from the opening it was Aravindh who was pushing and had a close to winning position. The boy from Chennai had sacrificed a piece correctly and was very close to mating the white king. But it was not to be. Two inaccurate moves were enough for Vaibhav to steady his ship, get his king to safety and make his extra piece count.
Vaibhav Suri has excellent chances of becoming the Commonwealth Champion

Abhijeet Gupta looking in great mood before the round
Abhijeet was pressing throughout the game against Swapnil Dhopade, but in the end had to settle for a draw
Aleksandar Wohl of Australia is playing some great chess and is on 5.0/6
On Facebook Alex wrote, "The championship is heating up and despite being retired since 2011 I am still managing to play on the top boards. Maybe this is my Indian summer?"
You can read about his experiences at the tournament from his blogposts that he writes every day.
Tejas Bakre split the point with Abhijit Kunte
Experienced GM Pravin Thipsay roared back after his second round loss to score four consecutive wins and is now on 4.5/6. He beat GM Sahaj Grover in the sixth round.
Thejkumar has made a positive move towards the 2500 mark by beating GM Niaz Murshed
Swati Ghate drew her game against Ziaur Rahman. With 4.5/6, she is leading in the women's section
What does the AICF Secretary do when he wants to take a break from all the official work? Of course, play chess!
After 3.5/4 start, Priyanka lost both her rounds. She is still in with a chance to achieve a WGM norm.
A true chess lover is Anila Shah (left) from Gujarat 
Famous journalist Rakesh Rao playing in the journalists tournament!
The playing hall

Results of Round 6:

Bo. No.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg No.
1 1 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2625 4½ ½ - ½ 4½ GM Swapnil S. Dhopade 2517 5
2 3 GM Vaibhav Suri 2558 4½ 1 - 0 4½ GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2593 2
3 15 GM Bakre Tejas 2449 4½ ½ - ½ 4 GM Kunte Abhijit 2504 6
4 27 FM Mitrabha Guha 2301 4 ½ - ½ 4 GM Gagare Shardul 2472 12
5 33 WGM Kulkarni Bhakti 2255 4 0 - 1 4 IM Wohl Aleksandar H. 2355 23
6 4 GM Rahman Ziaur 2527 3½ ½ - ½ 4 WGM Swati Ghate 2278 31
7 18 GM Murshed Niaz 2399 3½ 0 - 1 3½ IM Thejkumar M. S. 2491 7
8 8 GM Grover Sahaj 2484 3½ 0 - 1 3½ GM Thipsay Praveen M 2419 16
9 9 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 2482 3½ 1 - 0 3½   Priyanka K 2081 53
10 25 WGM Gomes Mary Ann 2331 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ GM Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib 2480 10

Complete results

Rank after Round 6:

Rk. SNo   Name FED Rtg Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 3 GM Vaibhav Suri IND 2558 5,5 0,0 22,5 25,5
2 5 GM Swapnil S. Dhopade IND 2517 5,0 0,0 21,5 23,0
3 1 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2625 5,0 0,0 20,5 23,0
4 23 IM Wohl Aleksandar H. AUS 2355 5,0 0,0 20,0 22,0
5 15 GM Bakre Tejas IND 2449 5,0 0,0 18,5 21,5
6 31 WGM Swati Ghate IND 2278 4,5 0,0 21,0 24,0
7 2 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. IND 2593 4,5 0,0 21,0 23,5
8 6 GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2504 4,5 0,0 19,5 21,0
9 9 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. IND 2482 4,5 0,0 18,5 21,5
10 12 GM Gagare Shardul IND 2472 4,5 0,0 18,0 21,0

Complete Rankings

Round 7 on 2017/07/08 at 15.00 Hrs

Bo. No.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg No.
1 1 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2625 5   5½ GM Vaibhav Suri 2558 3
2 5 GM Swapnil S. Dhopade 2517 5   5 GM Bakre Tejas 2449 15
3 2 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2593 4½   5 IM Wohl Aleksandar H. 2355 23
4 6 GM Kunte Abhijit 2504 4½   4½ IM Shyaamnikhil P 2450 14
5 7 IM Thejkumar M. S. 2491 4½   4½ FM Mitrabha Guha 2301 27
6 16 GM Thipsay Praveen M 2419 4½   4½ GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 2482 9
7 12 GM Gagare Shardul 2472 4½   4½ WGM Swati Ghate 2278 31
8 34 CM Thilakarathne G M H 2231 4   4 GM Rahman Ziaur 2527 4
9 10 GM Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib 2480 4   4 WGM Kulkarni Bhakti 2255 33
10 11 GM Ankit R. Rajpara 2474 4   4   Nayak Rajesh 2198 39

Complete pairings

Chess-results link of age categories:

U-8 Open (Priansh Das leads with 4.0/4)

U-8 Girls 

 

U-10 Open

U-10 Girls (It is going to be a race between Savitha and Sahithi)

 

U-12 Open

U-12 Girls (Divya Deshmukh is a clear favourite and is leading)

 

U-14 Open

U-14 Girls

 

U-16 Open

U-16 Girls

 

U-18 Open

U-18 Girls

 

U-20 Open (GM Shardul Gagare is the favourite)

U-20 Girls

Live games:

Following live games of the Commonwealth has been made very easy. You can now do it from the ChessBase India website by clicking on the link below. The games begin at 15.00 hours (except for double rounds on 6th of July). Apart from just watching the live games, you can also view the games of the previous rounds (and download them if you are a ChessBase Account Premium Member). There's also some light analysis of the games done by using the Tactical analysis feature.

 

Follow the games live by clicking on this link

Articles on Commonwealth 2017 on ChessBase India:

Commonwealth Chess Championships 2017 begin today

Live Games from Commonwealth 2017

Round one: Kumar Gaurav stuns GM Ziaur Rahman

Round two: A full blooded King's Indian fight

Round three: Women power prevails

Round four+five: Five leaders after five rounds

 

About the author:
Jitendra Choudhary is a chess trainer in Delhi. He is from Madhya Pradesh, but shifted to Delhi to pursue his passion related to chess. He currently teaches students, works as an arbiter and would like to dedicate more time to being a chess journalist.