Mumbai challengers IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni and Arnav Kherdekar won their respective seventh-round matches and jointly share the lead at the top in the SMCA Chess School organized 1^st All India FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament 2024, played at the Russian House, Peddar Road, Mumbai, on Wednesday.

The top-ranked Vikramaditya  (2185) playing with the black pieces opted for the Nizmo Indian Classic opening against Delhi’s Saikat Nath (1829) on the top board. The Delhi player under pressure made a mistake on the 29^th move and the IM Vikramaditya
pounced on the opportunity to force the win.

Meanwhile, Arnav (1846) playing with white pieces, started with the Philidor defence opening against Yash Kapadi (1818) and was in control throughout on the third board. Black found the going tough and an error on the 47^th move proved costly as Arnav went for the kill and closed out the win.

Pune’s contender Yash Watarkar (1963) was forced to share honours with Thane’s Arharv Soni (1968) in another seventh-round contest. Both Watarkar and Soni are jointly placed in the second position with five other players all with six points each.

Earlier at the end of sixth round,  Atharv Soni of Maharashtra registered a calculative win against compatriot Om Gada and shared the leaderboard with IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni, Yash Watarkar, Arnav Kherdekar (all Maharashtra) and Delhi’s AIM Saikath Nath with 5.5 points

The Thane-based Soni (rating 1968) playing with the black pieces started with the French Tarrasch variation. Gada (1807) made a mistake on the 24^th move by playing the pawn to g4 and that allowed Soni the upper hand and the black Bishop pair proved very strong and was instrumental in securing the win.

Meanwhile, on the top two boards, IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni (2125) was forced to share honours with city mate Arnav Kherdekar (1846) while Pune’s Yash Watarkar (1963) faced quite a challenge from Delhi’s AIM Saikat Nath (1829) before splitting two points.

Following closely behind the lead pack are, Sanjeev Mishra, Kshaunish Jaiswal, and Yash Kapadi, all winning their respective sixth-round of matches and with five points each are still in contention of finishing among the top.

Mumbai-based Mishra (1885) defeated Thane’s Anirudh Subramanian (1627) on the fourth board. Shaunish Jaiswal (1641) of Mumbai beat the higher-ranked Saurabh Kulkarni (1839), and Yash Kapadi (1818) of Palghar outwitted Manya Balani (1590) of Gujarat to stay in the hunt.

Darsh Shetty (Mumbai), Deepak Soni (Palghar), Yuti Patel (Mumbai), and Tarun N (Delhi) also won their sixth round matches and are in contention of finishing at the top all having five points each.

Results – Top 10 (Round 7):

AIM Saikat Nath (5.5) lost to IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni (6.5) 0-1; Atharv Soni (6) drew Yash Watarkar (6) 0.5-0.5;Arnav Kherdekar (6.5) beat Yash Kapadi (5); Udupi Acharya (5) lost to Sanjeev Mishra (6); Darsh Shetty (6) beat Atish Laddad (5) 1-0; Deepak Soni (5) lost to Guruprasad Kulkarni (6) 0-1; Tarun N (5) lost to Kshaunish Jaiswal (6) 0-1; Shubh Patel (5) lost to Kartik Kumbhar (6) 0-1; Yuti Patel (6) beat Prisha Margai (5) 1-0; Shraddha Padvekar (4.5) lost to Om Gada (5.5) 0-1.