R SAILESH of Tamil Nadu, Kishan Kumar of Bihar and Rupam Mukherjee of West Bengal were leading the tables with 6½ points to their credit at end of seven rounds of 19th GH Raisoni Memorial International FIDE Classical Rating Chess Tournament 2026 currently in progress at GH Raisoni Institute of Information and Technology, Shraddha Park, Wadi. Sole leader up to sixth round, Sailesh had to be content with a draw on top board with Shaon Chowdhary of West Bengal. On the second board, Kishan Kumar of Bihar accounted for Pradip Tiwari of Defence Accounts Sports Board to share joint lead. Third board also saw a decisive result when Nilay Kulkarni of Maharashtra went down to Mukherjee. With this crucial win, Mukherjee also has 6½ points to share lead with Sailesh and Kishan Kumar. In the other decisive results of seventh round, Nagpurians Vishawaditya Awasthi beat Sohum Pawar, Prerak Darvekar won against Spandan Wahane and Jay Sawalakhe scored over Aditya Kranti to share second spot along with Abhiram Vaddi of Andhra Pradesh, Chowdhary of West Bengal and Rajnikant Buxy of Chhattisgarh with six points to their credit. There are in all 11 rounds to be played in the event which will be played till June 12. The tournament is being organised by GH Raisoni Sports and Cultural Foundation jointly with Kalpana Prakash Welfare Foundation and is recognised by the Chess Association Nagpur, Maharashtra Chess Association, All India Chess Federation and FIDE. IA Ajinkya Pingle is the Chief Arbiter of the event who is being assisted by Deputy Chief Arbiter FA Shiva Iyer, FA Sagar Sakhare, FA Amit Tembhurne, SNA Sham Agrawal, SNA Prayas Ambade, SNA Shishir Indurkar and Prathamesh Machave.