Nagpur: Top seed IM Kaustav Kundu of West Bengal, second seed Arun Kataria of Rajasthan and Nagpur’s Shaunak Badole are leading the table with 6½ points at the end of seventh round of 18th GH Raisoni Memorial International FIDE Classical Rating Chess Tournament currently in progress at GH Raisoni Institute of Information and Technology, Shraddha Park, Wadi Hingna Link Road, Nagpur.
The tournament is being organised by GH Raisoni Sports and Cultural Foundation in association with Kalpana PrakashWelfare Foundation and is recognised by the Chess Association Nagpur, Maharashtra Chess Association, All India Chess Federation and FIDE.
Gold Rate
13 June 2025
Pratik Tambi, Kushagra Paliwal, Arpita Patankar, Sahajveer Singh Maras and Nilay Kulkarni are closely following the leaders with six points each to their credit. In the seventh round, the top board witnessed a quick draw between IM Kundu and FM Kataria in just 11 moves. However, on the second board, there was a fight between Nagpur lad Shaunak Badole and Shrenik Jain Daklia of Chhattisgarh. Both players settled in, securing their respective areas.
However, after kingside castling by Shrenik, Shaunak launched a kingside attack against the Black King. With better piece placement and precise play Shaunak recorded the victory after 28 moves to join the leaders at the top. The third board game was a Carokann Defense employed by Pratik Tambi of Amravati against third seed FM Kumar Gaurav of Bihar.
Gaurav, who had lost to the top seed Kundu in the earlier round, did not take any risk and agreed for a draw in 30 moves. As the race for the title goes ahead, the players are taking a cautious approach to be in race.
IA Ajinkya Pingle is the chief arbiter of the event who is being assisted by deputy chief arbiter FA Shiva Iyer, FA Sagar Sakhare, FA Amit Tembhurne, SNA Shyam Agrawal, SNA Prayas Ambade, SNA Shishir Indurkar and Prathamesh Machave.
