THE FOREIGN CONNECTION: Nepal’s (from left) Bibek Lama, Roshan Paudel, Prashanta Thapa, Bijaya Dangol and Bangladesh’s Protiva Talukder, during The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship, at Gorky Sadan, on Friday. Telegraph pictures

Calcutta: Defending champion, Sayantan Das, looks all set to retain the title in 22nd The Telegraph Chess Championship at the Gorky Sadan. The 13-year-old former world U-12 champion, from Scottish Church won both his games, albeit in contrasting fashion, to take his tally to nine points. His nearest rival, Diptayan Ghosh of South Point is a clear point behind on eight points. He meets Diptayan in the next and penultimate round and a draw will ensure the title for Sayantan.

The premier school championship is being presented by Himani Sona Chandi Chyawanprash and organised by Alekhine Chess Club.

Sayantan Das decimated Nishant Malhotra of Delhi in the ninth round in a Queen’s Pawn Opening. Sayantan, playing white, castled on the queenside and started an attack on the kingside by marching up his pawns. Nishant, erred in keeping his king in the centre and was subject to a decisive attack by his opponent’s pieces.

Earlier in the day, Sayantan survived an inferior position from the opening, against Chandrasish Majumdar of St Xavier’s as the latter mishandled the middlegame, giving his opponent the full point. Diptayan Ghosh, bounced back into reckoning, by winning both his games comfortably against Nishant Kumar and Kaustav Kundu of South Point. He has the advantage of white pieces, in the next round against Sayantan and an interesting struggle is on cards, on Saturday.

Debankan Dhara of Vivekananda Mission School held the second seed, Prince Bajaj of DPS, Ghaziabad to a draw in a Bogo-Indian defence in 32 moves. Earlier, he had won against Ved Prakash of Bihar while Bajaj had shattered Saptorshi Gupta of Vivekananda Mission School in the eighth round.

TOP BOARD RESULTS

Round VIII: Chandrasish Majumdar (6.5) lost to Sayantan Das (8); S. Prasannaa (6.5) drew Saurabh Mandal (7); Prince Bajaj (7) bt Saptorshi Gupta (6); Nishant Kumar (6) lost to Diptayan Ghosh (7); Dhriti Shankar (7) bt Aditya Chakraborty (6); Kumar Sanu (6.5) drew Ardhya Sekhar Bagchi (6.5); Nishant Malhotra (7) bt Sraman Bhowmick (6); Ved Prakash (6) lost to Debankan Dhara (7); Kaustuv Kundu (7) bt Akash Tiwari (6); Sudarshan Mitra (6.5) drew Sumit Kumar (6.5); N.R. Vignesh (6.5) bt Suvradeepta Das (5.5); N.R. Visakh (6.5) bt Subhayan Kundu (5.5); Kumar Gaurav (6.5) bt Sayan Majumdar (5.5); Shoumi Mukherjee (6.5) bt Arpita Mukherjee (5.5); Mitrabha Guha (6.5) bt Rohon Sen (5.5); Protiva Talukdar (6) drew Vikash Kumar Dwivedi (6); Sourjyendu Malakar (6) drew Subhasis Barik (6); Aubhropratim Manna (6) bt Soumik Dutta (5); Dangol Bijaya (5) lost to Tamal Naskar (6); Suvankar Maity (6) bt Neelash Saha (5); Trinath Ghosh (6) bt Bibek Lama (5); Arpas Das (5.5) drew Sameer Sengar (5.5); Ishan Gupta (5) lost to Ankit Sinha (6); Deep Dutta (5.5) drew Saptadeep Ghosh (5.5); Rahul Raj (6) bt Nivedita (5); Sayantan Kundu (6) bt Ritika Doshi (5); Prashanta Thapa (5.5) drew Andolan Sarkar (5.5); Abhilasha Bhattacharya (5) lost to Raunak Mondal (6); Abhrajit Das (5.5) drew Satyam Kumar(5.5); Sankalan Bharati (5.5) drew Aritra Mukherjee (5.5).
Round IX: Sayantan Das (9) bt Nishant Malhotra (7); Debankan Dhara (7.5) drew Prince Bajaj (7.5); Diptayan Ghosh (8) bt Kaustav Kundu (7); Saurabh Mandal (7.5) drew Dhriti Shankar (7.5); Sumit Kumar (7) drew Chandrasish Majumdar (7); Kumar Sanu (6.5) lost to S. Prasannaa (7.5); Shoumi Mukherjee (6.5) N.R. Vignesh (6.5); Mitrabha Guha (6.5) N.R Visakh (6.5); Aradhya Sekhar Bagchi (6.5) KumarGaurav (6.5); Aditya Chakraborty (7) bt Sudarshan Mitra (6.5); Biswadeep Saha (6) lost to Aubhropratim Manna (7); Manish Kumar (6.5) drew Suvankar Maity (6.5); Sarbajit Chowdhury (6) lost to Nishant Kumar (7); Ankit Sinha (6) Sagar Mukherjee (6); Sraman Bhowmick (7) bt Protiva Talukdar (6); Tamal Naskar (6) Ved Prakash (6); Subhasis Barik (6.5) drew Rudra Nath Ghosh (6.5); Asmita Das Munshi (6) lost to Rahul Raj (7); Saptorshi Gupta (7) bt Trinath Ghosh (6); Hrithik Prasad (6) lost to Sayantan Kundu (7); Raunak Mondal (6.5) drew Sourjyendu Malakar (6.5); Akash Tiwari (6) lost to Aditya Chowdhury (7); Debangshu Chakraborti (7) bt Arkaprava Banerjee(6); Rohan Mathur (6.5) drew Anustoop Biswas (6.5); Vikash Kr Dwivedi (6) lost to Sayan Majumdar (6.5); Abhirup Das (5.5) lost to Arpan Das (6.5); Andolan Sarkar (5.5) lost to Deep Dutta (6.5); Suvradeepta Das (5.5) lost to Satya Sekhar Mitra (6.5); Subhayan Kundu (5.5) lost to Ansuman Samal (5.5); Aritra Mukherjee (6) drew Prasanta Thapa (6).