Top seed Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly scored a thumping victory over B S Shivanandan in the 18th round to came back into reckoning for top honours at the 43rd National 'A' chess championship in Vishakhapatnam.
With just three rounds remaining in the premier event, Ganguly moved to 12.5 points from his 17 games so far within striking distance of overnight leader International Master Deepan Chakravarthy (13) who had a bye in the 18th round.
Diwakar Prasad Singh remained on course for his maiden selection in the national team with a fine attacking victory over International Master S Kidambi. The Jharkhand player is now on sole third spot on 12 points.
The fourth spot is jointly held by Grandmaster Koneru Humpy and last year's runners-up Sandipan Chanda who have an identical score of 11.5 points while M R Venkatesh, who suffered a shock defeat at the hands of tailender IM Lanka Ravi, is now sixth in the standings having 11 points.
Even though he is clear third now, one thing going against Singh is the fact that he has just two games remaining while all the other contenders have another game in hand. This is because of the odd number of participants left in the fray after GM Tejas Bakre withdrew after playing his first round.
Whoever had to face Bakre, thus, got a bye and Singh is the only one remaining among the contenders for a place in the team, who has not got a bye yet.
Ganguly was pleasantly surprised to see Shivanandan going for the Petroff which has not exactly been his opening in the past as black pieces. The defending champion was a picture of confidence and launched a direct attack against Shivanandan who found the going tough.