The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Ganguly and Gopal still ahead

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Ganguly and Gopal still ahead

Arvind Aaron

CHENNAI: The top seed Surya Shekhar Ganguly of Kolkata and third seed G.N. Gopal of Aluva (Kerala) figured in fighting draws to stay in the joint lead in the Velammal National ‘A’ chess championship at being held at the MAC Stadium here on Thursday.

Ganguly and Gopal have 8.5 points from 12 games and enter the final round on Friday with plenty of possibilities. With three wins in a row, K. Ratnakaran of Southern Railway is on eight points and is also in the title race.

If Ganguly keeps his cool and wins, it will be his fifth title in succession and he will equal Manuel Aaron’s record. If Gopal or Ratnakaran win, they will become the first Kerala player to win the National ‘A’ crown.

Arbiter Prof. R. Anantharam of Sivakasi said in case of a tie on points which appears likely, Ganguly has a good tie-break followed by Gopal and Ratnakaran.

Vidit wins again

Vidit Gujrathi of Nasik is on a roll. Since making his nine-game IM-norm here, he has played with greater enthusiasm and extended it to a 12-game IM norm. In a queen and minor pieces ending, he overpowered M.S. Thejkumar of Mysore.

Important results (12th round): G.N. Gopal (8.5) drew with M.R. Venkatesh (7.5); D. Barua (7) drew with S.S. Ganguly (8.5); Arun Prasad (7.5) drew with A. Kunte (7.5).

K. Ratnakaran (8) bt S.P. Sethuraman (7); Deepan Chakkravarthy (6.5) drew with Neelotpal Das (7); P. Negi (7) bt Sudhakar Babu (6); P.M. Thipsay (6.5) drew with Tejas Bakre (6.5); S.R. Chowdhury (7) bt Shashikant Kutwal (6); B. Adhiban (7) bt Saptarshi Roy (6); Vidit Gujrathi (7) bt M.S. Thejkumar (6).

P.S. Mokal (6.5) bt R.B. Ramesh (5.5) and S. Satyapragyan (5.5) drew with Nisha Mohota 5.5.

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