BHUBANESWAR: Unbeaten 15-year-old Telangana player Vignesh, Advaith Vemula being rated 58th became the solo leader with 5.5 points by the end of the sixth round of Category-A in the 1st SOA International GM Chess festival here on Thursday.
Elo rating 2028 Vignesh edged out higher-rated 14-year-old FM Gautham Krishna of Kerala in the sixth round today. In the seventh round on Friday, he will meet ninth seed Iran IM Arash Tahbez. Earlier, he pipped Kargezuthan IM Tologon Tegin and Tamil Nadu IM Manish Anto Christian in the 2nd and 3rd rounds respectively. He also made a draw with another Indian IM Ameya Audi in the fourth round. Vignesh was followed by CM Soham Komotra of Jammu and Kashmir and IM Arash with five points each.
Top-seeded West Bengal GM Diptayan Ghose, Subhamaya Kundu, FM Ayush Sharma, IM Ameya Audi, GM Sayantan Das, IM Shahil Dey , Russian GM Boris Savchenko, FM Gautham Krishna, IM Neelash Saha and local IM Sambit Panda jointly placed in the third place with 4.5 points.
Odisha’s Tapan Badamundi was crowned Category-B champion in the 1st SOA International Grand Masters Chess Festival at the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University here on Thursday. He scored 8.5 points to take home the trophy and a cash prize of Rs 75,000.
Sudhanshu Ranjan (Bihar) and Akshat Negi (Delhi) claimed the first and second runner-up prizes of Rs 50,000 and Rs 40,000 respectively with eight points each. A total of 181 players from three countries participated in this 10-round competition, which carried a total prize fund of Rs 7.5 lakhs.