Asian chess championship: Harsha holds Praggu, stays ahead

New Delhi, October 31

Indian Grandmaster Harsha Bharathakoti held top-seeded compatriot and GM R Praggnanandhaa to a draw in the sixth round of the open section to remain in the sole lead with five points in the Asian Continental Chess Championship here on Sunday.

The Bharathakoti-Praggnanandhaa match ended in 33 moves with the two players agreeing to a draw. It halted the four-match winning run of Bharathakoti. Eight Indian players — Praggnanandhaa, Leon Luke Mendonca, Karthikeyan Murali, Koustav Chatterjee, SL Narayanan, B Adhiban, SP Sethuraman and Aravindh Chithambaram — were half-a-point behind Bharathakoti. The others with 4.5 points are Saparmyrat Atabayev, Maksat Atabayev and Shamsiddin Vokhidov. In other key results, Mendonca drew against Sethuraman, Murali and Adhiban shared honours, while Vokhidov split the point with Maksat.

In the women’s event, India’s GM PV Nandhidhaa wore down compatriot Priyanka Nuttaki in 61 moves to move to 5.5 points and into the sole lead.