The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Ratnakaran sitting pretty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005

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Sport - Chess

Ratnakaran sitting pretty

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: Kerala champion K. Ratnakaran is on a high at the Cusat Open all-India FIDE-rated chess tournament here. The fifth-seeded Southern Railway star surprised second-seeded Dronavalli Harika and No. 4 M.S. Thejkumar on Tuesday and extended his lead by a whole point at the Cochin University's SMS Hall.

Ratnakaran was thanking his lucky stars after the morning's victory over under-14 World champion Harika. "I had a small advantage after the opening but I thought I was slightly down in the endgame. Then Harika committed a blunder," he said after the 45-move Sicilian Pelican game. Ratnakaran now has seven points from as many rounds.

Harika had a rather disappointing day. For she drew the evening's seventh round with Chennai's 13-year-old R. Ashwath, whose Elo rating is 260 points lower than that of the Andhra star, and is way behind the leader.

The results (seventh round): M.S. Thejkumar (Kar, 5.5) lost to K. Ratnakaran (Ker, 7); C. Natarajan (ICF, 6) drew with R. Preetham Sharma (Rly, 6); Ram S. Krishnan (TN, 5.5) drew with R.R. Laxman (TN, 5.5); R. Balasubramanium (TN, 6) bt C. Praveen Kumar (TN, 5); Aswin Jayaram (TN, 6) bt M.B. Muraleedharan (Ker, 5); B.T. Murali Krishnan (Rly, 5) lost to Derric Pinto (Kar, 6); P. Saravana Krishnan (TN, 5.5) drew with T. Purushothaman (AP, 5.5); P.D.S. Girinath (AP, 5) drew with R. Ganesh Bhat (Ker, 5); Dronavalli Harika (AP, 5) drew with R. Ashwath (TN, 5); Syed Anwar Shazuli (ICF, 5) drew witih Indranil Das (WB, 5); J. Ramakrishna (AP, 5) drew with Joydeep Dutta (WB, 5); R. Premnath (TN, 5) drew with D.P. Singh (Jkd, 5); Laishram Imocha (Asm, 5.5) bt N.T. Suresh Kumar (Ker, 4.5); U.C. Mohanan (HIL, 5.5) bt M.M. Anandh Raj (TN, 4.5); N. Jyothilal (Ker, 5) drew with T.J. Suresh Kumar (ICF, 5); K. Alex Thomas (Ker, 5.5) bt Neeraj Khera (Pjb, 4.5); N. Vigneshwaran (TN, 4.5) lost to Nikhilesh Kumar (AP, 5.5); M. Dusthageer Ibrahim (TN, 5) drew with P. Phoobalan (TN, 4.5); Merryston David Scanny (TN, 4) lost to O.T. Anilkumar (Ker, 5); Ajeesh Antony (Ker, 5) bt T.U. Naveen Khanna (TN, 4).

Sixth round: K. Ratnakaran bt D. Harika, D.P. Singh lost to M.S. Thejkumar, R. Preetham Sharma bt J. Ramakrishna, C. Praveen Kumar drew with B.T. Murali Krishnan, C. Natarajan bt O.T. Anilkumar, R.R. Laxman bt K. Haridas, Joy Lazar lost to R. Balasubramanium, M.B. Muraleedaran bt P. Karthikeyan, T. Purushothaman bt B. Adhiban, R. Ganesh Bhat drew with Laishram Imocha.

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