Bihar’s Kaushalendra Kumar, who is in the lead with Bitan Banerjee and Debaditya Sinha Biswas, at Gorky Sadan on Wednesday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: The 18th edition of The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship is set for an exciting finish. With a round to go, the trio of Debaditya Sinha Biswas, Bitan Banerjee and Bihar’s Kaushalendra Kumar are tied at the top with 8.5 points each, while three others are half-a-point behind.

The 11-round Swiss league tournament, presented by Linc and co-sponsored by Bata, is being held at Alekhine Chess Club, Gorky Sadan.

Bitan meets Kumar in the crucial duel on Thursday, while Debaditya faces third seed Soumya Thakurta.

Soumya of St James’, the sole overnight leader, opted for his favourite Slav defence against Bitan of Baruipur HS but was soon in dire straits as his pieces were cramped and devoid of good squares. Bitan trapped Soumya’s queen on the 23rd move after which the latter resigned.

Debaditya, the state junior and sub-junior champion from Salt Lake Point School, decimated Satyajit Kundu of Vivekananda Mission. Satyajit grabbed a pawn on the queenside neglecting the development of his pieces and was punished by Debaditya.

Kumar won a piece against Utkal Ranjan Sahoo of Orissa early in the game after which he had little difficulty in winning though the game continued till the 49th move.

British U-14 Champion Ankush Khandelwal gave a walkover Ankan Modak as he was indisposed and down with dysentery.

Avi Bagdi of Madhya Pradesh defeated Asian U-12 girls’ champion Padmini Rout of Orissa in an opposite-coloured bishop ending.

Suman Basu of Madhyamgram HS outwitted Payel Guha of Holy Child in a Scotch gambit rather comfortably in 50 moves.

Top seed Kh Sanjoy Singh, playing against visually challenged Ganesh Kisku of Louis Braille Memorial School for the Sightless, won in 33 moves in a Ruy Lopez opening. Singh, who has seven points, has a very slim chances of finishing in the top-ten.

TOP BOARD RESULTS

Round X

Bitan Banerjee (8.5) bt Soumya Thakurta (8); Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (7.5) lost to Kaushalendra Kumar (8.5); Satyajit Kundu (7) lost to Debaditya Sinha Biswas (8.5); Padmini Rout (7) lost to Avi Bagdi (8); Suman Basu (8) bt Payel Guha (7); Samrat Ghorai (7.5) drew with Hemant Sharma (7.5); Rama Kumari (7.5) drew with Abhratanu Dutta (7.5); Abhirup Kar (7) drew with Saurav Chakraborti (7); Diptayan Ghosh (6.5) lost to Nilabhro Datta (7.5); Ankush Khandelwal (6.5) gave a walk to Ankak Modak (7.5); Debanjan Das (7.5) bt Ankit Singh (6.5); Gourav Bhaduri (7) drew with Sukanya Dutta (7); Rishi Shankar (7.5) bt Sayantan Das (6.5); Abdullah Al Saif (6.5) lost to Avinash Singh (7.5); Soumik Chowdhury (7.5) bt Mohana Sengupta (6.5); Sandipan Chatterjee (7) bt Swarup Dey Sarkar (6.5); Kh Sanjoy Singh (7) bt Ganesh Kisku (6); Antarip Roy (7) bt Poulasta Kar (6); L. Shakespeare (6) lost to Prithwi Sinha (7) ; Md Sharif Hossain (6) lost to Pallabi Roy (7).