Mumbai: International Master S Satyapragyan of Orissa shocked Grand Master and fourth-seed Surya Shekhar Ganguly of Bengal in the 12th round of the 40th National ‘A’ Chess Championships on Saturday.

However, overnight leader and GM K Sasikiran of Tamil Nadu continued to lead the pack with 9.5 points to his credit after beating IM and sixth-seed R B Ramesh of Tamil Nadu in just 37 moves.

GMs P Harikrishna of Andhra Pradesh (second-seed) and Abhijit Kunte of Maharashtra (third-seed) are breathing down top-seed Sasikiran's neck with 8.5 points each.

In a closed Ruy Lopez game Satyapragyan with white pieces made an unusual sixth move offering his pawn on D4. Early in the opening Satyapragyan traded his minor pieces to open up the centre so that he could launch an attack.

On the 18th move, Satyapragyan sacrificed his bishop on F6 for a pawn and followed it with an exchange sacrifice of a Rook for his opponent's Bishop. This allowed his Queen to enter G7 square with a check while Ganguly slowly lost control over the game and Satyapragyan won in an end game.

In the eighth round of the 29th National Women ‘A’ Championship, WIM Nisha Mohota of Bengal upset overnight leader and former under-18 girls World champion and WIM R Aarthie of Tamil Nadu in 23 moves and wrest the lead with six points to her credit with Aarthie half a point behind her.

PTI