National Chess Championship 2024: Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly occupies pole position after Round 5
The fifth round of the National Chess Championship 2024 came to an end in Gurugram, Haryana with Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly leading the pack with five points along with Neelash Saha and Aronyak Ghosh.
While nine players held four points with four consecutive wins after Round 4, only three players are leading after the fifth round - Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Neelash Saha, and Aronyak Ghosh. Sayantan Das, Karthik Venkataram, Diptayan Ghosh, Sethuraman SP, and Aakash G occupy the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth ranks respectively.
A few of the top players settled for draws in Round 5 with some interesting pairings set to be a part of the sixth round. The top two players Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Neelash Saha will take on each other in Round 6.
National Chess Championship 2024, Round 5: Results (Top 15 Players)
Surya Shekhar Ganguly 1 - 0 Deep Sengupta
Neelash Saha 1 - 0 Sankalp Gupta
Aronyak Ghosh 1 - 0 Venkatesh MR
Sayantan Das ½ - ½ Karthik Venkataraman
Diptayan Ghosh 1 - 0 Zahid Raihaan
Aakash G 1 - 0 Nikhil Shyaam P
Antonio Dcunha Viani ½ - ½ Vignesh NR
Visakh NR ½ - ½ Laxman RR
Swapnil S Dhopade ½ - ½ Sriram Jha
Esshan Wadhawan 1 - 0 Sammed Jaykumar Shete
National Chess Championship 2024, Round 5: Top 20 rankings
1. Surya Shekhar Ganguly - 5 Points
2. Neelash Saha - 5 Points
3. Aronyak Ghosh - 5 Points
4. Sayanatan Das - 4.5 Points
5. Karthik Venkataraman - 4.5 Points
6. Diptayan Ghosh - 4.5 Points
7. Sethuraman SP - 4.5 Points
8. Aakash G - 4.5 Points
9. Venkatesh MR - 4 Points
10. Antonio Dcunha Viani - 4 Points
11. Sankalp Gupta - 4 Points
12. Zahid Raihaan - 4 Points
13. Visakh NR - 4 Points
14. Swapnil S Dhopade - 4 Points
15. Esshan Wadhawan - 4 Points
16. Vignesh NR - 4 Points
17. Sriram Jha - 4 Points
18. Adireddy Arjun - 4 Points
19. Krishna CRG - 4 Points
20. Ajay Karthikeyan - 4 Points
National Chess Championship 2024, Round 6: Top 5 ranked players pairings
Surya Shekhar Ganguly vs Neelash Saha
Aronyak Ghosh vs Sethuraman SP
Sayantan Das vs Aakash G
Karthik Venkataraman vs Diptayan Ghosh