Venkatesh in sole lead

MR Venkatesh continued to lead the field with 7.5 points after the end of the 10th round of the National Premier Chess Championship at Kshudiram Anushiram Kendra here on Thursday.

Venkatesh was followed by GN Gopal and Deep Sengupta in the second spot with seven points each.

Results (Round X): GM MR Venkatesh (7.5) drew IM Vidit Gujarathi (6.5); GM GN Gopal (7) bt FM Anurag Mhamal (6); GM Sahaj Grover (5.5) lt to GM Deep Sengupta (7); G Akash (6.5) bt IM Swapnil Dhopade (6); GM Abhijit Kunte (6) drew GM S Arun Prasad (6); GM B Adhiban (6) drew IM S Satyapragyan (5.5); GM Praveen Thipsay (5.5) drew GM SP Sethuraman (5.5); K Praneeth Surya (5) lt to GM Deepan Chakraborthy (6); GM Neelotpal Das (6) bt IM P Kartikeyan (5); Sagar Shah (6) bt IM Debashis Das (5); GM Dibyendu Barua (4.5) lt to GM MR Lalith Babu (5.5); WGM Mary Ann Gomes (5) drew FM Diptayan Ghosh (5); IM Swayams Mishra (5.5) bt Bitan Banerjee (4.5); Murali Kartikeyan (5) bt GM S. Kidambi (4).