Bhubaneswar: Utkal Ranjan Sahoo and Rajesh Nayak of Orissa are leading the pack along with eight others with three points apiece after the completion of the third round in the category A of the Xth KIIT International Chess Festival here Sunday.
Sidhant Mohapatra, Vaivabh Mishra and Sekhar Chandra Sahoo are sharing the joint second spot along with 28 others with 2.5 points each.
However Orissa’s top bet GM Debashis Das and IM Padmini Rout are sharing the joint third spot with two points each.
In a third round major upset Utkal stunned statemate Debashis. Rajesh forced Mahindrakar Indrajeet of Maharashtra to share points. Sidhant also played out a draw with Aditya Mittal of Maharashtra. Vaivabh got the better of Erigaisi Arjun of Telangana. Sekhar prevailed over Sanket Chakravarty of West Bengal. After a poor start Padmini won her match against Kishan Gangolli of AICFB easily.
In category B, Smaraki Mohanty of KIIT is sharing the joint second spot along with six others with six points each after the completion of the seventh round. Kumud Kumar Nath of the state is sharing the joint third spot along with 12 others with 5.5 points apiece. Smaraki scripted a convincing win over statemate Prasanna Kumar Nayak in her seventh round match. Kumud checkmated K Shriman of Tamil Nadu.
Sixteen players of the state are sharing the joint fourth spot with five points apiece. They are Rabindra Ojha, Prasanna Kumar Nayak, Sanjeeban Nayak, Sudhir Kumar Behera, Santosh Gourav Nayak, Sagar Biswal, Jyoti Ranjan Padhy, Hrushikesh Rath, Nilsu Patnaik, Priyabrata Samant Singh, Johnson Sahoo, Soundarya Kumar Pradhan, Harshit Ranjan Sahoo. Dinesh Kumar Behera and Santosh Raj Panda.
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