Top seeded Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran of Tamil Nadu increased his lead by two points with a creditable 51-move win over fourth seed GM S S Ganguly of Bengal after the 16th round in the 40th National 'A' men's chess championship in Mumbai on Tuesday.
In the 29th women's nationals being played simultaneously, overnight leader Nisha Mohota of Bengal and third seed WIM R Aarthie of Tamil, who beat her statemate Sai Meera, share the lead with 7.5 points each after ten rounds.
Nisha drew her tenth round match with fourth seed WIM S Meenakshi of Tamil Nadu.
Sasikiran, who has 13 points to his credit, is two points ahead of second placed GM and second seed Pendyala Harikrishna of Andhra Pradesh, third placed GM Abhijit Kunte of Maharashtra (10.5) and fourth placed GM Dibyendu Barua of Bengal (10).
Results (Men's 16th round):
S Satyapragyan (7) drew with S Saha (6); S Soman (3.5) lost to G B Prakash (7.5); S Kidambi (8) drew with D Barua (10); P M Thipsay (7.5) drew with Lanka Ravi (8); K Sasikiran (13) beat S S Ganguly (8.5); Tejas Bakre (7.5) lost to P Mokal (5); P Harikrishna (11) drew with N Das (8.5); M R Venkatesh lost to S Roy (8); Arvind Shastry (6) beat R B Ramesh (6.5); V Saravanan (5) drew with Abhijit Kunte (10.5).
Women's 10th round:
Y Pratibha (4) lost to Tania Sachdev (5.5); Krutika Nadig (2) drew with Swati Mohota (2); Swati Ghate (5) beat Vijayalakshmi (6.5); N Mohota (7.5) drew with S Meenakshi (5.5); R Aarthie (7.5) beat Sai Meera (1.5); D Harika (6) beat J E Kavitha (2).
