Senior national chess: Five players, including defending champ Aravindh Chithambaram, share lead

Five players, including defending champion Aravindh Chithambaram occupy the joint lead with 6.5 points each after eight rounds in the MPL 58th Senior National Chess Championship here on Tuesday.

In the eight round, Tamil Nadu Grandmaster P Iniyan outwitted top seed B Adhiban while International Master P Pranav shocked seasoned Grandmaster Deep Sengupta to join GMs Arjun Erigaisi and D Gukesh at the top.

Chithambaram beat Railwayman Sayantan Das in his eighth round match.

Overnight joint leaders Erigaisi and Gukesh drew their games against N R Visakh and M R Lalith Babu respectively which enabled Iniyan, Pranav and Chithambaram to catch up with the leaders.

In other matches, Grandmaster Mitrabha Guha and Aryan Chopra agreed to split points, while Commonwealth champion Abhijeet Gupta beat Nitin S of Railways.

Guha, Aryan and Gupta trail the leaders by half a point along with Lalith Babu, Visakh, Swapnil Dhopade and Aditya Mittal.

Eighth round: Arjun Erigaisi (Telangana) (6.5) drew with N R Visakh (6); Lalith Babu (PSPB) (6) drew with D Gukesh (6.5); P Iniyan (6.5) beat B Adhiban (5.5); Aravindh Chithambaram (TN) (6.5) beat Sayantan Das (Railways) (5.5); Mitrabha Guha (6) drew with Aryan Chopra (6); Deep Sengupta (PSPB) (5.5) lost to V Pranav (TN) (6.5)