IM Neelotpal Das watches Bitan Banerjee during the ninth round of The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship on Tuesday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Soumya Thakurta of St James’ emerged as the sole leader with eight points after the ninth round of The Telegraph Schools’ Chess championship at the Alekhine Chess Club, in Gorky Sadan on Tuesday.

Third seed, Soumya Thakurta faced little difficulty against Satyajit Kundu of Vivekananda Mission as the latter’s position was totally cramped and Soumya had the advantage of two bishops. Satyajit’s position crumbled in the face of collective onslaught of his opponent’s active pieces.

The 18th edition of this 11 round Swiss League tournament is being presented by Linc and co-presented by Bata. Debaditya Sinha Biswas, Bitan Banerjee, Kaushalendra Kumar and Utkal Ranjan Sahoo share the second position with 7.5 points each.

Soumya, who was third last year, will face Bitan Banerjee in the next round with the black pieces. The state sub-junior champion Bitan from Baruipur HS, playing with black against second seed, Debaditya Sinha Biswas of Salt Lake Point School obtained an opening advantage in the Najdorf Sicilian but failed to convert it into a win, and had to settle for a draw. Avi Bagdi of Madhya Pradesh and Hemant Sharma of Delhi were content to draw in a mere 15 moves, with both the players unwilling to take any risks.

The British U-14 champion, Ankush Khandelwal, was shocked by Kaushalendra Kumar of Bihar in a Ruy Lopez opening. In another upset, Utkal Ranjan Sahoo of Orissa beat top seed, Kh. Sanjoy Singh of Manipur in a Sicilian defence after a prolonged struggle. The eighth seed, Sandipan Chatterjee of Shree Jain Vidyalaya, too, was tumbled by Samrat Ghorai of Maria’s Day School in a queen ending. Suman Basu of Madhyamgram HS converted his material advantage into a win against Pallabi Roy of Indira Gandhi Memorial School in a bishop versus knight ending. Ankesh Dubey of Madhya Pradesh went down to Rama Kumari of Jharkhand in 50 moves in a Queen’s Gambit Declined.

TOP BOARD RESULTS

Round IX ?? Debaditya Sinha Biswas (7.5) drew Bitan Banerjee (7.5); Soumya Thakurta (8) bt Satyajit Kundu (7); Avi Bagdi (7) drew Hemant Sharma (7); Kaushalendra Kumar (7.5) bt Ankush Khandelwal (6.5); Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (7.5) bt Kh. Sanjoy Singh (6); Pallabi Roy (6) lost to Suman Basu (7); Sandipan Chatterjee (6) lost to Samrat Ghorai (7); Ankesh Dubey (6) lost to Rama Kumari(7); Payel Guha (7) bt Antarip Roy(6); Saurav Chakraborti (6.5) drew Denjan Das(6.5); Reevu Ghosh (6) lost to Padmini Rout (7); Abhratanu Dutta (7) bt Chandrashis Mazumdar (6); Ankit Kr Singh (6.5) bt Prantik Roy(5.5); Nilabhro Datta (6.5) bt Aubhropratim Manna (5.5); Raj Goenka (6) drew L Shakespeare (6); Sukanya Dutta (6.5) bt Dhriti Shankar (5.5); Avinash Singh (6.5) bt Nishant Katrni(5.5); Sayantan Das (6.5) bt Indranil Chattopadhyaya (5.5); Rishi Shankar (6.5) bt Parikshit Upadhyaya(5.5); Abdul Sahmin (5.5) lost to Diptayan Ghosh (6.5).