KATHMANDU: Purushottam Chaulagain and Deepak Maharjan registered wins in the ninth round of the second Mumbai Mayor’s Cup International Chess Championship at the Gurgaon Sports Club on Thrusday.

Purushottam defeated India’s 1669 rated Harsha Gondaliya, while Deepak outplayed 1592 rated R Salini in the ninth round. Out of the six Nepali participants who played their rounds on Thursday, Niraj Niraula and Rijendra Rajbhandari settled for draws, while Nepal’s only FIDE Master Manish Hamal and Prem Krishna Maharjan lost their matches.

Niraj was held by unrated player Pranab Karande, while Rijendra shared points with Siddhartha Mahapatra. FIDE Master Manish lost to 2222 rated Ranjan Sahu and Prem Krishna was beaten by FIDE Master and 2286 rated Bishnu Prasanna. Niraj, Rijendra and Manish have accumulated five points each, while Prem Krishna has four points.

Meanwhile, Prakash Nepal, who entered the championship after the completion of the first round, returned home midway. He quit the tournament to take part in the Under-19 National Championship to be held in Kathmandu. The top two players from the championship will get an opportunity to represent the country in the International Under-19 Chess Championship to be held in Sri Lanka.