Date:28/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/01/28/stories/2005012812781800.htm

Sport - Chess

Sreekumar, Muralidharan in joint lead

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 27. P. Sreekumar and M.B. Muraleedharan shared the lead with six points each at the end of the seventh round of the YMCA Open prize money chess tournament at the YMCA hall here on Thursday.

Sreekumar and Muraleedhran settled for a quick draw in their seventh round match. Top contender K. Ratnakaran stayed in the hunt with a win over R. Rajeev. Ratnakaran (5.5 points) shared the second spot with five others.

The results (seventh round):

P. Sreekumar (6) drew with M.B. Muraleedhran (6); G.S. Sreejith (5.5) drew with Shyam Nikhil (5.5); K. Ratnakaran (5.5) bt R. Rajeev (4.5); Arun Kumar (5.5.) bt K. Haridas (4.5); B. Eswaran (5.5.) bt Ajaya Bose (4.5); O.T. Anil Kumar (5) bt Vijayakumar (4); M. Sivaraj (4) lost to K.R. Madhusudanan (5); K.P. Sasikumar (5) lost to V. Rajith (5); T. Saji (4) lost to P.V. Santosh (5); K.V. Gopalan (3.5) lost to K. Prankumar (4.5); K.S. Sreejith (4.5) bt T.K. Joseph (3.5); S.A. Joseph (4.5) bt N. Sugunaraj (3.5); V.M. Rajeev (4.5) bt Gunaseelan (3.5); G. Chandran (3) lost to P.S. Shan (4.5); S.M. Sreekumar (4) bt Justin Joseph (3); S.A. Sajan (4) bt K.A.K. Anwar (3); S.S. Ragesh (4) bt Peter C. Roy (3); K.S. Nair (4) bt Anandu Suresh (3); Anjana S. Krishnan (3) lost to B. Umesh (4); M.M. Saheer (4) bt P. Prasanth (3). — Our Sports Reporter