Akshayakalpa State Open Chess: Thejkumar scores over Balkishan

Grand Master M.S. Thejkumar of Mysuru (2493), playing with white pieces on the top board, yesterday scored a well-earned win over A. Balkishan (2026) and is in joint lead with two other players — D. Yashas and Mysuru's IM Girish A. Koushik — with six points from six rounds in the Akshayakalpa Karnataka State Open Chess Championships being played at Hotel Woodlands premises in Bengaluru. Thejkumar had wins over H.S. Chethan, Aarvi Jain, N. Rakesh, N. Raghavendra, C. Halsagar and A. Balkishan. Other Mysuru players Chaitanya Ganesh (5 pts-34th place), Arnav Muralidhar (5 pts-37th place), L. Vivekananda (4.5 pts-65th place), H.R. Manasa (4.5 pts-82nd place), M. Shivanth (4.5 pts-98th place) have also performed well in the Championships.