Tamil Nadu grandmaster and last year's Asian junior champion Aravindh Chithamabaram defeated International Master P Shyaamnikhil of Railways to join the grandmaster MR lalith Babu of Petroleum Sports Board in the lead at the end of the eleventh round of the Khadi India National Premier Chess Championship, organised by All Bihar Chess Association at lemon Tree Hotel, Patna on Wednesday. Both have scored 7.5 points each. Three players - defending champion Karthikeyan Murali of Tamil Nadu, Sl Narayanan of Kerala and Arghyadip Das of Railways -- share the second spot on 6.5 points. The overnight leader lalith Babu had a draw against Deepan Chakkravarthy of Railways.
Capitalising on the White's idle queen on h-file for 13 moves, Aravindh slowly targeted the king side. Under severe time pressure, Shyaam committed a harakiri, allowing Aravindh to nail his queen to the wall, blocking all its escape routes. Shyaam resigned after 40 moves of the game.
GM Sl Narayanan tried in vain to extricate full point against GM Swapnil Dhopade in a Cao Kann defence, by sacrificing his bishop and then his rook for a knight. But his tactics failed to bear any fruit. He had to force a draw by repeated checks with his queen to the Dhopade's king on the edge of the board, in a rook down position. Defending champion Karthikeyan Murali of Tamil Nadu never held any advantage in his game with Railways international master Arghyadip Das, who started with the Keres variation of the Ruy lopez opening. They had to settle for a draw in a knight and bishop ending.
Former national champion Abhijit Kunte of PSPB registered his first win in the tournament over GM Himanshu Sharma of Railways in a Scheveningen variation of Sicilian defence.