Atharv Soni of Maharashtra registered a calculative win against compatriot Om Gada and with 5.5 points shares, the lead with IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni, Yash Watarkar, Arnav Kherdekar, all Maharashtra and Delhi’s AIM Saikath Nath at the end of the sixth round of the SMCA Chess School organised 1st All India FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament 2024, played here at the Russian House on Tuesday.

The Thane-based Soni (rating 1968) playing with the black pieces started with the French Tarrasch variation. Gada (1807) made a mistake on the 24th 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.

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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 – 6:

IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni (5.5) drew Arnav Kherdekar (5.5) – 0.5-0.5; Yash Watarkar (5.5) drew AIM Saikat Nath (5.5) – 0.5-0.5; Om Gada (4.5) lost Atharv Soni (5.5) – 0-1; Sanjeev Mishra (5) beat Anirudh Subramanian (4.5) – 1-0; Kshaunish Jaiswal (5) beat Saurabh Kulkarni (4) – 1-0; Yash Kapadi (5) beat Manya Balani (4) – 1-0; Dhruv Muthe (4) lost Darsh Shetty (5) – 0-1; Shriyans Agharkar (4) lost Deepak Soni (5) – 0-1; Rajeev Rudra (4) lost Yuti Patel (5) – 0-1, Shravana Agraval (4) lost Tarun N (5) – 0-1.