The contest for the top honours is intensifying, with Darsh Shetty (ELO 1833) and Yash Kapadi (ELO 1879) jointly leading the standings with six points each at the conclusion of Round 6 of the All India Chess Masters FIDE Rating Chess Championship, being held at the Mumbai Chess Centre, Russian House, Pedder Road.
Yash Kapadi, playing with the black pieces on the top board, outmanoeuvred Shreyas G. Gokhale to register his sixth consecutive victory and maintain his position at the summit. Sharing the lead is Darsh Shetty, who also played with black pieces and secured a hard-fought win against Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Kirti Patel on the second board to stay firmly in title contention.
Vageesh Swaminathan (ELO 1763) trails closely in third place with 5.5 points. In Round 6, Swaminathan, playing with the white pieces, delivered a strong performance to defeat Hridaya Goyal and strengthen his chances of a podium finish.
Results: Shreyas Kaushik (ILO 1736) 0 lost 1 Yash Kapadi (ILO 1879)
WCM Kriti Patel (ILO 1695) 0 lost 1 Darsh Shetty (ILO 1833)
Vageesh Swaminathan (ILO 1763) 1 beat 0 Goyal Hridaya (ILO 1704)
Daksh Jagesia (ILO 1882) .5 drew with .5 AFM Arya Bagayatkar (ILO 1666)
Om Gada (ILO 1814) 1 beat 0 AFM Sohum Pawar (ILO 1658)
Jajoo Vansh (ILO 1656) 1 beat 0 Janhavi Soneji (ILO 1796)
Chris Isaiah (ILO 1659) 0 lost 1 Mayuresh Parkar (ILO 1757)
Deepak Soni (ILO 1753) 1 beat 0 Ashish Tvesha (ILO 1619)
Aashrita Balaji (ILO 1611) .5 drew with Sandeep Pasbola (ILO 1715)
Nirvaan Shah (ILO 1711) 1 beat 0 Amber Gangwal (1617)