Saptarshi stuns Deep Sengupta; three share lead

New Delhi: Petroleum Sports Promotion Board`s Grandmaster trio of G N Gopal, Parimarjan Negi and Neelotpal Das took the lead with perfect scores after second round matches in the ongoing 48th National Premier Chess Championship on Friday. Playing black side of Trompovsky variation, top seed Gopal defeated International Master Shyam Sundar of Tamil Nadu in 42 moves while Negi got the better of GM Deepan Chakkravarthy with white pieces in Berlin Defence. Tenth seed Neelotpal joined Gopal and Negi at the top with an easy outing against Matta Vinay Kumar of Andhra Pradesh. In other second round encounters, third seed Grandmaster Deep Sengupta suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Saptarshi Roy of Railways in the eventful second day of the championship. Playing white side of French Defence, Saptarshi overcame his fancied rival in 39 moves. International Master Shyam Nikil of Tamil Nadu outwitted veteran GM Praveen Thipsay. National Challenger Champion International Master M R Venkatesh signed peace treaty with International Master S P Sethuraman and former national champion Abhijit Kunte agreed to split the point against team mate International Master P Konguvel after mandatory 25 moves. Local hope International Master Vaibhav Suri defeated International Master D P Singh of Railways. In other surprising results in the second round, Delhi based J B Joshi of Air India stunned International Master MS Thejkumar of Railways while International Master Vidit Gujarathi of Maharashtra satisfied with half point against J Ramakrishna of Andhra Pradesh. PTI