Top seed International Master Vikramaditya Kulkarni and 5th seed Ketan Boricha, both with 6.5 points each, are in joint top position at the end of the 7th round of the Rs.1.50 lakhs prize-money SBI Life All-Maharashtra FIDE Rating Chess Tournament, which commenced at the Don Bosco High School, Borivali on Saturday.
On the top-board, Vikramaditya defeated overnight joint leader, Rajababu Gajengi from the white-side of English Opening while Ketan Boricha made short work of Aditya Bandekar in just 29 moves of Pirc-Modern defense.
Chirag Satkar, who had held top-seeded IM Vikramaditya in round 6, continued his dream run by holding 4th seeded Amardeep Bartakke to a draw from the Black side of French Defense. Chirag is now jointly holding the 2nd spot with Amardeep Bartakke, Rajesh Gupta, Yash Kapadi, Kashish Jain and Pratik Shenvi.
With 3 more rounds remaining, a stiff competition is expected from the participants to claim the top honours.
Key Results of Round 7: Kulkarni Vikramaditya (6.5) bt Gajengi Rajababu (5.5), Bartakke Amardeep S. (6) drew with Satkar Chirag (6), Boricha Ketan (6.5) bt Bandekar Aditya (5.5), Siddhanth Lohia (5.5) drew with Kumthekar Shubham (5.5), Shenvi Pratik (6) bt Kokitkar Harsh (5), Shardul Santosh Wakade (5.5) drew with Joglekar Abhijit (5.5), Nimdia Ridit (5) lost to Gupta Rajesh R.S. (6), Golvankar Dilip K. (5.5) drew with Shreyam Mishra (5.5), Jain Kashish Manoj (6) beat Ankur Mahesh Gokhale (5), Ankit Bhattacharya (5) lost to Kapadia Yash (6), Krishna Malay (5.5) drew with Modi Jainam (5).