Nitin Belurkar Faces Defeat as Petrosyan Shines at Maharashtra Chess Open

At the Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament, Nitin Belurkar's winning streak came to an end as he was defeated by Armenian player Manual Petrosyan. Several players, including Levan Pantsulaia and J Deepan Chakkravarthy, maintained joint leads. Hind ranks were reshuffled as matches unfolded, highlighting fierce competition.

On Friday, Nitin Belurkar, who had been exhibiting outstanding performances over the previous five days, met his match against Manual Petrosyan from Armenia at the Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament. This marked the end of Belurkar's dominating streak as Petrosyan clinched victory.

In addition to Belurkar and Petrosyan, the likes of Levan Pantsulaia and Tornike Sanikidze from Georgia, along with Indian players J Deepan Chakkravarthy and Neelash Saha from RSPB, as well as Boris Savchenko from Russia, are leading with 5.5 points each.

The tournament results show intense competition across the board, with notable wins and draws that have shuffled the leaderboard. Key matches included Pantsulaia defeating Ayush Sharma and Chakkravarthy overpowering Sandipan Chanda. Meanwhile, in the Below 1800 games, players like Soboleva Anastasia and Gopinath P have taken early leads.

(With inputs from agencies.)