Four share lead in State chess

Top seed G A Stany was held to a draw by Likhit Chilukuri in the 6th round of the Akshayakalpa Karnataka State Open Chess Championship here on Monday.

Fourth seed and eight-time State champion N Sanjay too had to be content with a draw against Santosh Kashyap H while GM Thej Kumar posted a quick win to emerge leader along with three others.

Girish Koushik, D Yashas and Arvind Shastry are the others in joint lead, with six points. A total of 15 players follow in second place, half a point behind.

In a King Pawn Opening which didn’t go the conventional way, Likhit was on the aggressive side with the white pieces. His bishop, knights and rooks made consistent attempts to invade the enemy territory to try and catch the king in a checkmating net but Stany forcibly brought about the exchange of pieces. As the game petered into a queen and pawn ending, the players called it a draw on the 60th turn.

Sanjay opted for the volatile Benko Gambit against Santosh Kashyap but the expected fireworks failed to materialise and after 25 moves, the players split point.

Results (round 6): Thejkumar M S bt Balkishan A, Likhit Chilukuri drew with Stany G A, Girish A Koushik bt Manjunath J, Santosh Kashyap H G drew with Sanjay N, Gahan M drew with Isha Sharma, D Yashas bt Hardik Jha, Arvind Shastry bt Sridharan R, Avinash Vaidyanathan drew with Ojas Kulkarni.