National Challengers Round 5+6: Swapnil, Himanshu, Sammed lead with 5.5/6

Round 5

Railways Grandmaster duo Swapnil Dhopade and Himanshu Sharma were in joint lead with a perfect score after the fifth round of the 55^th National Challengers Chess Championship, here at the Karnavati Club, Ahmedabad.

Playing with the black pieces in a Four Knights Game, Swapnil was able to equalise very easily against S Nitin.  A minor slip by Nitin in the middle-game gave his Grandmaster opponent the edge. Making the most of Nitin's slip, Swapnil was able to liquidate the position into a bishop versus knight endgame where his knight was far more active than Nitin's bishop. As play progressed, Nitin missed a knight-fork that caught his bishop and was forced to resign.

The second board match between Himanshu Sharma and Mary Ann Gomes was a rollercoaster ride for both players and spectators. Countering Mary's Sicilian with 2. Nc3, the players ventured into an obscure Dragon like structure. As middle game commenced, the Haryanvi GM flung his pawns forward with the hope of hunting down Mary's monarch. But the Bengali WGM bravely defended her king, marching it all the way to the queenside. With her king tucked in safely, Mary now had a winning position (and of course, a little lamb :P). Himanshu's failed attack had left gaping holes on the kingside and now it was his own king which looked precarious. Had Mary found a few precise moves, she would have pocketed the full point. But that was not to be. After a couple of inaccurate moves by her, the position was dead equal. It would still have been easier for her if this was the end of the story. But just when this pulsating battle had stabilised, she overlooked one-move mate and handed over the full point to the Railways Grandmaster. 

A pack of five players including overnight joint leaders Abhijit Kunte and Sammed Jaykumar Shete are in the second spot, just half a point adrift of the leaders. Kunte and Shete signed peace after playing out the mandatory 25 moves. Grandmaster Debashis Das of Odisha and Arghyadip Das of Railways gave them company after beating Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury and Pranavananda V, respectively. 

Results of Round 5

Rank after Round 5

Round 6 

Going into round 6, Maharashtra’s Sammed Jaykumar Shete joined tournament leaders after defeating Grandmaster Debashis Das of Odisha. This crucial victory enabled Shete to catch up with leaders Swapnil Dhopade and Himanshu Sharma, who signed peace after the mandatory 25 moves.

A pack of seven players including top seed Aravindh Chithambaram and former national champion Abhijit Kunte are within striking distance, trailing by only half a point. Aravindh beat team mate Niranjan Navalgund while Kunte signed his second peace treaty of the day with Arghyadip Das. Earlier in the fifth round, he had drawn against Shete.

In other important sixth round encounters, Chakkravarthy Reddy of Telangana held second seed SL Narayanan of Kerala to a draw while Deepan Chakkravarthy and Swayams Mishra garnered full points against Ankit Gajwa and Arjun Tiwari, respectively.

Results of Round 6

Rank after Round 6

Round 7 on 2017/08/17 at 1000 hrs

About the author:

Gopakumar became an A-grade International Arbiter during the FIDE Arbiter's Commission meeting. He is only the fifth Indian to achieve this feat. He was the chief arbiter at two 2600+ double round robin events, Asian Youth Chief Arbiter at South Korea, Deputy chief arbiter at Asian Youth and Asian Junior at New Delhi. He dedicates his success to the Air Force background that he comes from. 

Previous reports on National Challengers 2017:

Parthiv Patel at the opening ceremony

14-year-old holds Sriram Jha to a draw

National Challengers 2017 Round 2+3: Day of underdogs!

Mary Ann Gomes wins an instructive rook endgame