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Maheswaran, Ashwath in lead

Arvind Aaron

Chennai: Former National sub-junior champion R. Ashwath and P. Maheswaran, of SRM College recorded eighth-round victories to go into joint lead in the 3rd S.K. Narasihman Memorial FIDE rating chess tournament here at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.

Quick draw

Second seed Ashwath accepted a quick 10-move draw with the black pieces from top seed and defending champion Ram S Krishnan in the morning.

In the evening, Ashwath kept former National ‘A’ player V. Subramanian guessing if he would castle and finally did when the game was in his pocket. With a pawn on the seventh rank, Ashwath won in 34 moves with the white pieces against a king’s Indian defence opening by threatening to capture a rook.

Ashwath and Maheswaran are on top with seven points from eight rounds.

Three rounds remain to be played.

Maheswaran accounted for Ram S. Krishnan from an irregular queen pawn opening.

In the most important game of the event, Ashwath takes on Maheswaran with the white pieces on Sunday morning.

The third position is shared by two players, Venkat Sundaram and S. Bharath on 6.5 points.

Bharath upset higher rated seasoned K.V. Shantharam with the black pieces.

Important results:

Round eight: P. Maheswaran 7 bt Ram S Krishnan 5, R. Ashwath 7 bt V. Subramanian 5.5, K.V. Shantharam 5.5 lost to S. Bharath 6.5, Abhilash Reddy 5.5 lost to Venkat Sundaram 6.5, Ajay Srikanth 6 drew with Stanley Samson 6, R.K. Athavan 5 lost to K. Gopalakrishnan 6, Venkata Krishna 6 bt E. Sharath 5, G. Akash 6 bt M. Swaroop 5, T. Shyam Sundar 5 lost to S. Kaushik 6, J. Saranya 6 bt K. Sai Prahlad 5.

Round seven: Ram S Krishnan drew with Ashwath, Venkat Sundaram lost to Maheswaran.

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