The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Shyam in lead

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Shyam in lead

Arvind Aaron

CHENNAI: Top seed Shyam Nikhil of SRM Nightingale School (Chennai) drew with Krishna Prasad of Salem to wrest a slender half-a-point lead in the Modern School FIDE-rating chess tournament, here on Friday.

Shyam has eight points after nine rounds and needs at least a draw in the final round on Saturday for the title.

Three players, Tejas Ravichandran, S. Nitin and D.S. Shashaank, are tied for the second to fourth places with 7.5 points each.

Second seed and overnight joint leader S. Nitin of Salem was defeated by Tejas Ravichandran, an unknown eighth standard student from P.S. Senior Secondary School (Mylapore, Chennai).

Tactical error

Trained by C.J. Arvind and S. Mariarul, Tejas said he did not know the opening line of the Sicilian chosen by Nitin. On the 18th turn, Tejas latched on to a tactical error to pocket the point in 28 moves.

On the third board, Ramnath Bhuvanesh of SBOA School opted for the closed variation as white against the Sicilian defence of Pradeep Kumar to play out a 43-move draw.

Shyam faced the Sicilian Sveshnikov from Krishna Prasad, but could not seize any big advantage and had to settle for a draw.

Earlier in the morning, Shyam had a marathon win with black against Anwesh Upadhyaya of Bhubaneswar while Nitin made easy work of Saranya.

Important results: Round nine: Shyam Nikhil 8 drew with K.C. Krishna Prasad 7, Tejas Ravichandran 7.5 bt S. Nitin 7.5, Ramnath Bhuvanesh 7 drew with R.A. Pradeep Kumar 7, N. Surendran 6 lost to D.S. Shashaank 7.5, Ritwan Sauntra 6 lost to Anwesh Upadhyaya 7, Pon N. Krithikha 7 bt K. Athish 6, Navalgund Niranjan 7 bt N. Rajkumar 6, G. Akash 7 bt V. Radha Krishnan 6, J. Saranya 7 bt Eshwanth Dev Kumar 6, K. Sai Prahlad 6.5 drew with S.S. Manigandan 6.5.

Round eight: Anwesh lost to Shyam, Nitin bt Saranya, Pradeep Kumar bt Surendran, Arun lost to Ramnath.

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