Mumbai challengers IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni and Arnav Kherdekar won their respective seventh-round matches to share lead in All India FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament in Mumbai on Wednesday. (More Chess News)
The top-ranked Kulkarni (2185), playing with the black pieces, opted for the Nizmo Indian Classic opening against Delhi's Saikat Nath (1829) on the top board.
Under pressure, Nath made a mistake on the 29th move which allowed his opponent to force a win.
Playing with white piece, Kherdekar (1846) started with the Philidor defence opening against Yash Kapadi (1818) and was in control throughout on the third board.
An error on the 47th move from Kapadi proved costly as Kherdekar went on to record his victory.
Pune's Yash Watarkar (1963) was forced to share honours with Thane's Arharv Soni (1968) in another seventh-round contest.
Both Watarkar and Soni are jointly placed in the second position with five other players all with six points each.
Results (top 10): Round 7: AIM Saikat Nath (5.5) lost to IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni (6.5) 0-1; Atharv Soni (6) drew with Yash Watarkar (6) 0.5-0.5; Arnav Kherdekar (6.5) beat Yash Kapadi (5); Udupi Acharya (5) lost to Sanjeev Mishra (6); Darsh Shetty (6) beat Atish Laddad (5) 1-0; Deepak Soni (5) lost to Guruprasad Kulkarni (6) 0-1; Tarun N (5) lost to Kshaunish Jaiswal (6) 0-1; Shubh Patel (5) lost to Kartik Kumbhar (6) 0-1; Yuti Patel (6) beat Prisha Margai (5) 1-0; Shraddha Padvekar (4.5) lost to Om Gada (5.5) 0-1.
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