Date:30/06/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/06/30/stories/2005063010211800.htm

Sport - Chess

Four players in joint lead

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: On a day when the lights went out a few times at the crowded tournament hall, overnight leader K. Ratnakaran suffered a blackout of sorts at the Cusat Open here on Wednesday.

The lone leader here the last couple of days, Ratnakaran lost both his rounds on Wednesday, the penultimate day of the all-India FIDE-rated chess tournament.

"It was a bad day for me. I overlooked a few things in the morning and then committed a blunder in the evening against Laxman," said the former Junior Asian bronze medallist.

Four Tamil Nadu players — defending champion R.R. Laxman, R. Balasubramanium, Aswin Jayaram and Ram S. Krishnan — now share the lead with 7.5 points after the ninth round.

The fifth-seeded Ratnakaran had lost to the seasoned ICF star Balasubramanium in the morning. And clearly, he was not in the best of rhythm when Laxman, the Chennai-based IM, came up with some fast attacking moves in a Benoni game in the penultimate round.

"It was a highly tactical game, lot of sacrifices and Ratnakaran committed a blunder," said the third-seeded Laxman after the 40-move victory.

The top seed, Andhra Pradesh's P.D.S. Girinath also had a bad day, losing both his games today.

The results: Ninth round: R.R. Laxman, (TN, 7.5 pts) bt K. Ratnakaran (S. Rly, 7); R. Balasubramanium (ICF, 7.5) drew with R. Preetham Sharma (Rly, 7); Aswin Jayaram (TN, 7.5) bt T. Purushothaman (AP, 6.5); Ram S. Krishnan (TN, 7.5) bt Derric Pinto (Kar, 6.5); C. Natarajan (ICF, 7) drew with Nikhilesh Kumar (AP, 7); C. Praveen Kumar (TN, 6) lost to M.B. Muraleedaran (Ker, 7); Syed Anwar Shazuli (ICF, 6) lost to T.J. Suresh Kumar (ICF, 7); K.M. Nizam (Ker, 6) lost to O.T. Anilkumar (Ker, 7); B. Adhiban (TN, 6.5) drew with B.T. Murali Krishnan (Rly, 6.5); Indranil Das (WB, 6) lost to D.P. Singh (Jkd, 7) ; D. Harika (AP, 6.5) bt Ajeesh Antony (Ker, 6); Saravana Krishnan (TN, 6.5) bt M.S. Thejkumar (Kar, 5.5); J. Ramakrishna (AP, 6.5) bt M.M. Anandh Raj (TN, 5.5); Laisram Imocha (Asm, 6.5) bt Joydeep Dutta (WB, 5.5); Vinoth Kumar (TN, 6) drew with Nimmy George (Ker, 6); U.C. Mohanan (HIL, 6) drew with N.T. Suresh, Kumar (Ker, 6); Alex Thomas (Ker, 6.5) bt Amit Sharma (Pun, 5.5); P. Maheswaran (TN, 6.5) bt Neeraj Khera (Pun, 5.5); Rahul Ved (6.5) bt R. Ganesh Bhat (Ker, 5.5); Dusthageer Ibrahim (TN, 5.5) lost to S. Nitin (TN, 6.5).

Eighth round: K. Ratnakaran lost to R. Balasubramanium; R. Preetham Sharma drew with Aswin Jayaram; Derric Pinto drew with C. Natarajan; R.R. Laxman bt U.C. Mohanan; M.S. Thejkumar lost to Ram S. Krishnan; T. Purushothaman bt K. Alex Thomas; Nikhilesh Kumar bt Laishram Imocha; M.B. Muraleedaran bt P. Saravana Krishnan; P.D.S. Girinath lost to B. Adhiban; S. Nitin drew with D. Harika.