Ganguly, Chanda in joint lead

Grandmasters Surya Shekhar Ganguly and GM Sandipan Chanda continued to share the lead with 5.5 points after the conclusion of the seventh round of the 42nd National 'A' Chess Championship underway in Visakhapatnam.

It turned out to be another good day for Kolkata city-mates as Ganguly put it across International Master Sriram Jha of LIC and Chanda proved a tough customer for teammate IM P Konguvel.

Incidently, Ganguly (PSPB) had won last edition of the championship on a better tiebreak score than Sandipan who finished second.

IMs S Kidambi and Neelotpal Das, also of PSPB with 12 rounds still remaining in this 19-players event, now follow the two leaders.

Ganguly displayed top form in cruising past Jha who was outdone in a Benko gambit game.

Playing white, Jha spurned down the opening gambit by Ganguly but soon the latter was on top with some imaginative manoeuvres that left Jha's Queen side in shambles. Picking up a pawn, Ganguly transposed to a won endgame and pocketed the full point after 60 moves.

Chanda's was a similar tale with a slight twist. The Kolkatan showed his peaceful intentions with a draw offer early in the opening that was declined by Konguvel.

However, after going for the ultra sharp Keres attack, Konguvel sacrificed a pawn for some optical advantage and Chanda gained decisive ground with precise defence. This game also lasted 60 moves.

IM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury meanwhile added to the woes of Women Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika from a Tchigorin defence game where the former played white. It took just 41 moves for Chowdhury to complete the victory.

In other important games of the day GM Dibyendu Barua was held to a draw by IM M R Venlatesh who employed the Sicilian dragon and Tejas Bakre accounted for an-off form Rahul Shetty in another Sicilian.

Results round 7:

D Harika (AP, 1.5) lost to S Roy Chowdhury (WB, 4); Roktim Bandyopadhyay (WB, 3) drew with Abhijit Kunte (PSPB, 3.5); Deepan Chakravarthy (TN, 3.5) drew with Koneru Humpy (AP, 3); Dibyendu Barua (WB, 4) drew with M R Venkatesh (4); P Konguvel (PSPB, 3.5) lost to Sandipan Chanda (PSPB, 5.5); S Kidambi (PSPB, 4.5) drew with Neelotpal Das (PSPB, 4.5); Sriram Jha (LIC, 2) lost to S S Ganguly (PSPB, 5.5); Tejas Bakre (IA, 4) beat Rahul Shetty (IA, 1); Suvrajit Saha (WB, 2.5) lost to Abhijit Gupta (Raj, 2); Prathamesh Mokal (BSB,
1.5) had a bye.