Ten contestants, including four from Jharkhand, have emerged joint leaders with three points each after third round on the second day of the 6th All India Open Chess Tournament in Jamshedpur on Tuesday.
Defending champion Abhishek Das of Jharkhand claimed swift win over Chhatisgarh's Buxy Rajnikant at the Rs 4.01 lakh prize money event at JRD Tata Sports Complex in Bistupur.
Three of Abhishek's state mates, Alka Das, Swaraj Palit and Vatsal Singhania emerged victorious in the third round. Alka outwitted statemate Ajit Kumar Shaw while Swaraj put it across Bengal's Sourath Biswas and Vatsal, on the other hand, tasted success against Bengal's Gopal Das.
Grandmaster Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury of Bengal maintained his form by posting a comfortable win versus statemate Samip Roy.
The five others who claimed third round wins include International Master (IM) Suvrajit Saha, Koustav Chatterjee, Pradeep Ghosh, Rupankar Nath and Niladri Shekhar Bhattacharya, all from Bengal.
Suvrajit and Koustav outwitted Tamal Chakravarty and Sudarshan Mitra, also from Bengal. Pradeep had the last laugh against Uttar Pradesh's Swapnil Raj whereas Rupankar tripped Bengal's Rupak De in the other third round tie.
Niladri claimed win versus Girish Dakliya Yogesh of Chhattisgarh.
The four-day event, which is being organised by East Singhbhum District Chess Association (ESDCA) in association with Tata Steel, has attracted a record number of 262 participants from across the country this time.
