Kolkata maintain lead

In the second round, Kolkata beat hosts NCA scoring 3.5 points. NCA could gather just half a point as IM Anup Deshmukh held S Saha to a draw. NCA’s other three players faced defeats.

On the fourth board, Commonwealth champion Atanu Lahiri defeated Saurabh Kherdekar in 22 moves after the former offered an intuitive piece sacrifice for positional advantage and attacked Kherdekar’s king to clinch a full point.

R Bandopadhyaya romped home enjoying benefit in the open `c’ file to beat Dilip Pagay in 22 moves. S S Soman was beaten by S S Ganguly.

The strong Chennai team scored all the four points against Nagpur City (2.5). Only resistance came from Chetan Deodhagale who played brilliantly against IM V Saravanan. Abha Thakur, her younger brother Akash Thakur and Gurpreet Singh Maras lost their respective games. Maras’ fall was attributed to his faulty opening.

Chrompet (4) improved their chances bagging 2.5 points against Mumbai. On the top board, Rahul Shetty played a risky king’s gambit against B T Muralikrishnan and lost the game. Pankaj Joshi’s aggression helped him beat C Natrajan. Ebenzer Joseph prevailed over V Kamble, while Ketan Boricha and YSA Shazuli (Chrompet) played a draw in a knight and pawn ending.

Kamptee (3) improved their chances with a 3-1 win over Vijaywada (1.5). Vikrant Chole’s was an easy win over K V Subramanian. D R Jaiswal outwitted I Amarnath. The J Kumar Raju-T Chandran (Kamptee) and IJ Ganesh-Vinay Barhanpure games ended in draws.

RESULTS

Round 2: Kolkata (6.5) bt NCA (4), Nagpur City (2.5) lost to Chennai (6.5), Mumbai (3) lost to Chrompet (4), Vijaywada (1.5) lost to Kamptee (3).

Third round pairings: Chennai vs Kolkata, Chrompet vs NCA, Kamptee vs Mumbai, Vijaywada vs Nagpur City.