Vidit Gujrathi, the highest-rated player here, was forced to a draw for the second successive day, this time by his Petroleum Board teammate Abhijit Kunte, in the second round of the South Indian Bank-CMS College 52nd National Premier chess championship at the CMS College here. Meanwhile, Deepan Chakravarthy, who was the quickest of the day with a 27-move verdict over P.D.S. Girinath, Deep Sengupta and M.R. Lalith Babu posted wins on Saturday. Five players, with 1.5 points each, are in the lead.
The results (second round): Swayams Mishra (Ori, .5) drew with Sahaj Grover (Del, 1.5), S.P. Sethuraman (PSPB, 1) drew with P. Karthikeyan (Rly, 1.5), Deep Sengupta (PSPB, 1.5) bt P. Shyam Nikhil (TN, .5), P.D.S. Girinath (Rly, 0) lost to J. Deepan Chakravarthy (Rly, 1.5), M.R. Lalith Babu (PSPB, 1.5) bt V.A.V. Rajesh (TN, 1), Abhijit Kunte (PSPB, .5) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (PSPB, 1).
