India chess tournament

All India FIDE Rating Open: International Master (IM) Vikramaditya Kulkarni of Mumbai along with Yash Watarkar (Pune), Arnav Kherdekar (Mumbai), and AIM Saikat Nath (Delhi) were sharing the lead at the end of the fifth round of the SMCA Chess School organized 1st All India FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament 2024 played at the Russian House here on Monday.

The leaders were sharing the top spot with five points each from five rounds.

On the first two boards in the fifth round, the top-ranked Kulkarni (2185) defeated Darsh Shetty (1798) on the top board while Watarkar (1963) outwitted Palghar’s Deepak Soni (1750) on the second to maintain the winning momentum.