Date:06/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/06/stories/2006050612011800.htm

Sport - Chess

Muralikrishna struggles to beat Iyan

Sports Reporter

KARUR: Top seed B.T. Muralikrishna of Southern Railway was stretched by Iyan Karukkuvel Rajan of Sivakasi.

Murali had to use all his experience to overcome his opponent in a King and pawn ending in the first round of the R. Ramasamy Gounder Memorial Fide rating Open chess tournament,here on Friday.

The biggest upset of the day was the defeat of WIM-elect Safira Shanaz of Rajapalayam at the hands of Koushik of Salem.

Right from the opening Koushik played an attacking game and gained upper hand in the middle game and towards the end he combined his Queen and Rook well to deliver mating threats and won the game in 35 moves.

On the 12th board, Kedarnath of Sivakasi Chess Club upstaged state junior champion Karthikeyan of Chennai.

Important results (I round):

Murali Krishna (S.Rly) 1 bt Iyan Karukkuvel 0; Jaffar Ali (Che) 0 lost to Balasubramanian (ICF) 1; M.B. Muralidharan (Ker) 1 bt N. Jayachandhar (Che) 0; M. Jayesh (Che) 0 lost to Y. Syed Anwar Shazuli 1 (ICF); P. Phoobalan (Coim) 1 bt J. Jeeva (Salem) 0; P. Kalisekhar (AP) 0 lost to V. Subramanian (Che) 1; P. Maheswaran (Siv) 1 bt Kamal Shankar (Trcy) 0; M.V.G. Kannan (Ero) 0.5 drew with U.C. Mohanan 0.5; R. Pounraj (Coim) 1 bt H.S. Karthik (Bang) 0; R. Karthik (Che) 0 lost to S. Nitin (Salem) 1; K. Haridas (Nag) 1 bt H.S Kaushik (Bang) 0; B. Koushik 1 bt Safira Shanaz 0; A. Kedarnath 1 bt P. Karthikeyan (Che) 0; Lakshman Yogesh (Sal) 0 lost to Utpal Baruah (Assm) 1; Nimmy A George (Ker) 1 bt Lalitha Raghavendran (Che) 0.