Kelkar regains lead

Abhishek Kelkar,Abhimanyu Puranik and Atul Dahale of Pune along with Jalgaon’s Pratik Patil took the lead after the seventh round at the Shri Maheshwarand Saraswati Memorial 51st Maharashtra State Open Selection FIDE Rating Chess Tournament. The tournament has been organised by Buddhibal Kreeda Trust on behalf of the Maharashtra Chess Association and under the auspices of Pune District Chess Circle. The tournament is being played at Manohar Mangal Karyalaya.

Overnight leader and seventh-seeded Pranav Shetty of Mumbai drew with city-mate and sixth seed Mithil Ajgaonkar while third-seeded Aniruddha Deshpande of Pune stopped the other joint-leader,Safal Bora.

Abhishek Kelkar who lost pole position Monday outwitted Kiran Panditrao,while Pratik Patil ousted Kapil Lohana in a tightly contested match. Abhimanyu Puranik scored a win over senior player Chandrakant Dongre,while Atul Dahale scored a win against Anish Gandhi of Kolhapur to power into the lead.

The ninth round of the event will be played from 9 am onwards followed by a prize distribution ceremony.