VALSAD: A spate of well-fought indecisive battles saw a victorious S. Arun Prasad gain a share of the lead at 5.5 points after eight rounds of the Atul National `A' chess championship here on Sunday.

With seven of the top eight boards ending in draws, the former Asian junior champion tamed K. Ratnakaran in 61 moves and found himself in the company of overnight leaders Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Dibyendu Barua and Deepan Chakkravarthy.

On the top board, Grandmasters Ganguly and Deepan belted out 17 moves of Sicilian Sveshnikov in quick time and then settled for a draw in 30 moves. Much to the surprise of Ganguly, Deepan offered a draw early in the game. Ganguly continued and gained a pawn but an inaccurate continuation allowed Deepan to seize some timely compensation. A little later, Ganguly's draw-offer found acceptance.

Keen duel

Barua and third seed Diwakar Prasad Singh were engaged in a keen duel before signing peace in 33 moves. This match was viewed with added interest since Barua is the President of the Chess Players Association of India (CPAI) that has sought strict action against Diwakar on the suspicion of the latter getting "outside help" during the last National `A' championship at Visakhapatnam in April this year.

Grudge battle

The "grudge" battle in Queen's Gambit Declined followed the regular line. The players tested each other on the queen's side and a series of exchanges later, truce was signed.

Meanwhile, three players inched closer to their IM norms. G.N. Gopal, who drew with GM Abhijit Kunte, needs only a draw against Suvrajit Saha to complete the title. Ratnakaran, inspite of losing to Arun, requires to hold GM Neelotpal Das for his IM norm. Somak Palit, who scored over Lanka Ravi, needs one point from two rounds for the norm.

The results (eighth round):

Surya Shekhar Ganguly (5.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy (5.5); Diwakar Prasad Singh (5) drew with Dibyendu Barua (5.5); Abhijit Kunte (5) drew with G.N. Gopal (5); M.R. Venkatesh (5) drew with Pravin Thipsay (5); K. Ratnakaran (4.5) lost to S. Arun Prasad (5.5); Suvrajit Saha (5) drew with Tejas Bakre (4.5); Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (4.5) drew with Neelotpal Das (4.5); D. Harika (4.5) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (4.5); Lanka Ravi (4) lost to Somak Palit (5); G. Rohit (5) bt S. Kidambi (3.5); R.B. Ramesh (4.5) bt Vikramaditya Kamble (3.5); Deep Sengupta (4.5) bt P.D.S. Girinath (3.5); Ashwin Jayaram (4.5) bt P. Konguvel (3.5); Valay Parikh (4) drew with Prathamesh Mokal (4); S. Poobesh Anand (4) bt T.S. Ravi (3.5); B.T. Murali Krishnan (4) bt Himanshu Sharma (3); Swati Ghate (3.5) drew with R.R. Laxman (3.5); V. Saravanan (3.5) drew with N. Sudhakar Babu (3.5); M.S. Thej Kumar (3.5) bt Eesha Karavade (3); G.B. Prakash (3.5) bt Varugeese Koshy (2.5); Syed Anwar Shazuli (3) drew with Roktim Bandyopadhyay (3); Abhishek Das (3) bt Sudhir Kumar Sinha (2); Swapnil Dhopade (3.5) bye.

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