Khelo Chess India Classical: Mukesh, Divyanshu, Devansh Among 12 Players in Joint Lead

by Niklesh Jain - 26/03/2026

After the first three rounds of the 2nd Khelo Chess India Classical FIDE Tournament being held in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, a total of 12 players are jointly leading the standings with three wins each. With one round being played each day, players are getting ample time for preparation, analysis, and rest, which is clearly reflected in several high-quality games on the board. The second round was inaugurated by Colombia’s number one chess player, Woman International Master Angela Franco, while the third round was inaugurated by current Under-12 Asian Champion, FIDE Master Madhavendra Pratap Sharma. After three rounds, the top six seeded players have all managed to register straight wins, but some upsets are expected from the fourth round onward.

Photo : Angela Franco , Niklesh Jain

12 players share the lead

Three rounds have now been completed in the Khelo Chess India FIDE Rating tournament, and 12 players have won all their games so far to share the lead. With a total prize fund of ₹150,000, the competition is expected to become tougher with each passing round, and it remains to be seen who will eventually claim the title of this classical event.

Earlier today, FIDE Master and Under-12 Asian Champion Madhavendra Pratap Sharma inaugurated the third round as a special guest. A resident of Bhopal, Madhavendra currently has a rating of 2352 and also holds one International Master norm. This year, he will represent India at the World Youth Chess Championship to be held in Italy.

Results of Round 3

On the top board, top seed Mukesh Saxena defeated 23rd seed Faiyaz Uddin to register his third consecutive win and maintain his position on the top table.

On the second board, there was a closely fought contest between Khelo Chess India Club’s Prateek Pandey and second seed Divyanshu Gupta, which eventually went in favor of Divyanshu.

On the third board, Khelo Chess India Club’s Devansh Singh defeated Deeptansh Kumar to score his third consecutive victory.

Meanwhile, on the fourth board, Khelo Chess India Club’s Prithu Gore lost a completely drawn position in the final moments. The game lasted 87 moves and was one of the longest encounters of the round.

On the fifth board, Siddharth Upadhyay emerged victorious in a 78-move battle.

Pairings/Results

Round 4 on 2026/03/26 at 05:00 PM

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	13		Jain, Medant	1591	3	3		Mukesh, Kumar Saxena	1829	2
2	3		Divyanshu, Gupta	1819	3	3	AFM	Darshil, Iyer	1586	15
3	17		Ishaan, Soni	1577	3	3		Devansh, Singh	1812	4
4	5		Riyansh, Dwivedi	1778	3	3		Shahid, Noor	1573	18
5	19		Sahil, Devnani	1570	3	3		Sidharth, Upadhyay	1748	6
6	7		Harsh, Goswami	1716	3	3		Biswajit, Das	1559	22
7	21		Rajendra, Singh	1563	2½	2½		Ram, Gupta	1669	10
8	23		Faiyaz, Uddin	1543	2	2½		Chatterjee, Arindam	1526	26
9	55		Bhagat, Shrinesh	0	2	2		Shrivastava, Chitransh	1694	8
10	11		Ahilaan, Roy	1655	2	2		Atharv, Kherwar	0	52
11	60		Daksh, Abhishek Jain	0	2	2		Prateek, Pandey	1542	24
12	25		Diptansh, Kumar	1531	2	2		Ayush, Pandey	0	54
13	69		Jha, Sarthak	0	2	2		Pruthu, Gore	1511	27
14	71		Kartikay, Kataria	0	2	2	AFM	Avish, Vishal Shinde	1505	28
15	29		Aryansh, Rathore	1500	2	2		Daksh, Baveja	0	61
16	89		Pranav, Gangil	0	2	2		Himank, Tahiliani	1484	30
17	31		Chaudhary, Aadavan	1465	2	2		Khandwe, Aaradhya	0	72
18	99		Salunke, Priyan Sanket	0	2	2		Aditya, Soni	1464	32
19	35		Chandrabhan, Singh Pawar	1440	2	2		Marc, Reuben Toppo	0	77
20	95		Ranak, Chourasia	0	2	2		Arnav, Pawar	1438	36
21	37	ACM	Gupta, Kushagra	0	2	2		Meghana, Singh	0	78
22	43		Agarwal, Harsh	0	2	2		Romit, Norbert Pandro	0	96
23	109		Shinde, Siddhant Subhash	0	2	2		Amrute, Sanidhya Singh	0	46
24	47		Anay, Chaturvedi	0	2	2		Sahu, Arnav	0	98
25	101		Sanidhya, Khachane	0	2	2		Anayra, Rathore	0	48
26	49		Arin, Kadbe	0	2	2		Sheikh, Arbaz	0	108
27	45		Amay, Agrwal	0	1½	2		Viswakarma, Naitik	0	120
28	57		Chopde, Varchasva	0	1½	1½		Akshat, Singh Thakur	0	44
29	119		Vishnu, Sharma	0	1½	1½		Gohar, Alvis Barrow	0	64
30	91		Raavi, Seyke	0	1½	1½		Vasdeo, Adwik	0	118
31	103		Sarkar, Piyush	0	1½	1		Chouhan, Shivam Singh	0	58
32	33		Amayra, Khan	1450	1	1		Piyush, Kumar Pks	0	86
33	40		Aayansh, Kumar Chowhan	0	1	1		Prakrit, Thakur	0	88
34	41		Abaneesh, Kumar Chowhan	0	1	1		Pratham, Singh Dhakad	0	90
35	87		Prakhar, Singh Gurjar	0	1	1		Advika, Rathore	0	42
36	59		Daivik, Mathur	0	1	1		Raghav, Singh	0	92
37	97		Sahare, Ishika Pramod	0	1	1		Das, Kamal	0	62
38	65		Gupta, Ridhaan Vaishnan	0	1	1		Rajoriya, Soumya	0	94
39	105		Shaiv, Abeer	0	1	1		Gyanav, Jain	0	66
40	67		Jain, Jishna	0	1	1		Samruddhi, Sethi	0	100
41	107		Sharma, Ridhaan	0	1	1		Jayati, Acharya	0	68
42	116		Soni, Rohit	0	1	1		Jha, Veeransh	0	70
43	117		Trivedi, Dhairya	0	1	1		Madhvi, Thakur	0	74
44	75		Malviya, Anurag	0	1	1		Saransh, Pal	0	102
45	122		Yadav, Shalini	0	1	1		Navya, Verma	0	80
46	81		Negi, Jaiansh	0	1	1		Sharma, Jitendra Kumar	0	106
47	83		Ojvit, Patel	0	1	1		Shrivastava, Manindra	0	113
48	85		Peehu, Jain	0	1	1		Shrivastava, Viaan	0	114
49	82		Nehal, Jain	0	½	1		Shourya, Lahoti	0	110
50	39		Aarohi, Dubey	0	0	0		Mani, Arjun	0	76
51	93		Raghuvanshi, Ram	0	0	0		Asrani, Ishwin	0	50
52	115		Singh, Akhand Pratap	0	0	0		Asrani, Saanvi	0	51
53	53		Atharva, Giri Goswami	0	0	0		Paul, Shanaya	0	84
54	63		Devara, Krishna Pavan	0	0	0		Shrey, Rishansh	0	112

NEW ARRIVALS

Khelo Chess India Classical: Mukesh, Divyanshu, Devansh Among 12 Players in Joint Lead

12 players share the lead

Results of Round 3

Pairings/Results

Round 4 on 2026/03/26 at 05:00 PM

Photos by WIM Angela Franco

NEW ARRIVALS

Khelo Chess India Classical: Mukesh, Divyanshu, Devansh Among 12 Players in Joint Lead

12 players share the lead

Results of Round 3

Pairings/Results

Round 4 on 2026/03/26 at 05:00 PM

Photos by WIM Angela Franco

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