Bhubaneswar: Utkal Ranjan Sahoo and Rutumbara Bidhar won their respective sixth round matches in a day of mixed fortunes for Odisha players at the Kolkata International Open Grandmasters chess tournament in Kolkata, Saturday.
Utkal got the better of Khusenkhojaev Muhammad (Tajikistan) while Rutumbara defeated NB Hari Madhavan (Tamil Nadu). Utkal is the leading state player with 4.5 points in his kitty, sharing the third position with few others. Rutumbara, on the other hand, has three points in her bag.
Among other state players, Sidhant Mohapatra, Mahitosh Dey and Baivab Mishra shared points with their respective opponents. Sidhant (3.5 points) played out a stalemate with Suvrajit Saha (Railways) while Mahitosh drew with Vatsal Singhania (Jharkhand). Baivab signed peace with Aronyak Ghosh (West bengal).
It was however a bad day in office for Rajesh Nayak, Sambit Panda and Soundarya Kumar Pradhan who lost their respective sixth round matches. Rajesh (3.5) lost to K Rathnakaran (Railways) while Sambit (2.5) suffered defeat against GM Mikulas Manik (Slovakia). Visually impaired Soundarya (1.5) lost to K Krithigga (Tamil Nadu).
Ukrainian Grandmaster Adam Tukhaev was leading the chart with 5.5 points in his kitty. Eight players are sharing the second spot having five points each in their bag.
