The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Diwakar Prasad outwits Murugan

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Thursday, Aug 03, 2006

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Sport - Chess

Diwakar Prasad outwits Murugan

Chennai: In an explosive game featuring five queens, top seed Diwakar Prasad Singh of Jamshedpur overcame Krishnamoorthy Murugan of N.L.C. to keep himself in joint lead at the end of the seventh round in the 6th Adyar Times FIDE-rated Open chess tournament being played here on Wednesday.

Round seven brought two original-thinking International Masters face to face. Players start with one queen each but three brand new queens were promoted in this highly volatile game. Murugan played white and took the risk by sacrificing a pawn. Later, a 32nd move gamble by Murugan did not pay off. It only left the game extremely sharp and Singh took care of all the minute traps to threaten a checkmate and win after 44 moves.

"I knew if I had to win the tournament I had to beat him. By losing I have not lost anything," said Murugan about his game.

K. Narayanan's luck ran out as he lost on time on the 42nd turn in a lost position against former University of Madras player Ram S. Krishnan. Ram and D.P. Singh are leading the field with 6.5 points from seven rounds. Three rounds remain to be played.

In the long morning session D.P. Singh won a delightful ending against Nitin. Narayanan was lucky to win a pawn down rook and opposite colour bishop ending against International Master Laxman.

Leading results:

Seventh round: Ram S. Krishnan 6.5 bt K. Narayanan 5.5, Murugan 5 lost to D.P. Singh 6.5, V. Hariharan 5.5 drew Sudhakar Babu 5.5, O.T. Anilkumar 6 bt Rahul Ved 5, Vinoth Kumar 5 lost to Sagar Shah 6, Laxman 5 drew K. Gopalakrishnan 5, S. Nitin 5 drew Shyam Nikhil 5, V. Haribalu 5.5 bt R. Ashwath 4.5, Shashaank 4.5 lost to D. Das 5.5, Arun Karthik 5.5 bt K.V. Anilkumar 5.

Sixth round: D.P. Singh bt Nitin, K. Narayanan bt Laxman, Shyam Nikhil lost to Ram S. Krishnan, R. Ashwath lost to O.T. Anilkumar, Murugan bt N. Surendran, Sudhakar Babu bt P. Jayakumar. — Arvind Aaron

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