JOIN USMR Venkatesh, who was the sole overnight leader, lost his match in an unprecedented manner against G Akash as he was penalised for arriving late by three minutes in the 11th round of the National Premier Chess Championship at Kshudiram Anushiram Kendra here on Friday.
With the result, the PSPB player lost his one point lead and he now shares the pole position with three others — Vidit Gujrathi, Deep Sengupta and Akash who was gifted one point by Venkatesh.
Venkatesh said he was “stuck in traffic” as he arrived at 2.33 pm but with zero tolerance rule, chief arbiter R Anantharam gave walkover to Akash. Akash of Tamil Nadu, who was paired against Venkatesh, took his tally to 7.5 points after winning the game by default.
After the completion of 11th round, Venkatesh, Akash, Gujrathi and Sengupta were in the lead with 7.5 points apiece.
Results (Round XI): G Akash (7.5) w/o GM MR Venkatesh (7.5); IM Vidit Gujarathi (7.5) bt GM GN Gopal (6); GM Deep Sengupta (7.5) drew GM Neelotpal Das (6.5); IM Swapnil Dhopade (6.5) drew GM B Adhiban (6.5); GM Deepan Chakraborthy (6.5) drew GM Abhijit Kunte (6.5); GM S Arun Prasad (7) bt Sagar Shah (6); FM Anurag Mhamal (6) lt to IM Swayams Mishra (6.5); GM SP Sethuraman (6) drew GM Sahaj Grover (6); GM MR Lalith Babu (6.5) bt GM Praveen Thipsay (5.5); IM S Satyapragyan (6) drew WGM Mary Ann Gomes (5.5); IM Debashis Das (6) bt SL Narayanan (5); Diptayan Ghosh (5.5) drew K Praneeth Surya (5.5); Murali Kartikeyan (6) w/o P Kartiyeyan (5); ML Abhilash Reddy (4.5) lt to Dibyendu Barua (5.5); Bitan Banerjee (5) drew Suvrajit Saha (5); Pratik Patil (4.5) lt to IM C Praveen Kumar (5.5); IM BT Murali Krishnan (5) drew Shashikant Kutwal (5); Arindam Mukherjee (3.5) lt to GM S Kidambi (5); Ram S Krishnan (3.5) lt to S Ravi Teja (4.5); CRG. Krishna (4) drew Sohan Phadke (3); FM VAV Rajesh (4.5) got a bye.