Second-seeded Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal’s seventh-seeded GM Sandipan Chanda shared the lead with 7.5 points in the National senior chess championship here on Tuesday.
The highlight of the day turned out to be the third and final Grandmaster Norm for International Master and former National Champion G Akash of Tamil Nadu.
Requiring a draw to achieve his Norm, Akash played steadily to hold fellow GM Vishnu Prasanna to a draw.
His 7/9 GM Norm performance includes wins over GMs Deep Sengupta, Aravindh Chithambaram and Sandipan Chanda.
M Shyaamnikhil (RSPB) defeated multiple Commonwealth Champion and top seed Abhijeet Gupta, while IMs Ravi Teja (RSPB) and Saravana Krishnan (TN) scored over GMs Lalith Babu (PSPB) and Tejas Bakre (Air India) respectively.