Date:16/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/16/stories/2007061602271800.htm

Sport - Chess

Seventh straight win for Prathamesh

Principal Correspondent

DINDIGUL: Prathamesh Mokal is probably in the form of his life. The 23-year-old from Pune posted his seventh win on the trot in the 45th National `B' chess championship, at the PSNA College of Engineering College and Technology, here on Friday.

With seven points from seven rounds, Prathamesh extended his lead to one point, with six more rounds to go. His latest victim was S.P. Sethuraman.

B. Abdhiban and Akshat Kamparia are in the second position.

Abhijeet disappoints

The two teenagers have six points apiece. Meanwhile, top seed Abhijeet Gupta's terrible run continued as he lost to D. Lakshman Rao and remained on 3.5 points.

Tough fight

It was once again a tough fight for Prathamesh on the top board. Playing on the black side of a Spanish Game, Sethuraman was able to equalise in the opening and then could create a passer, which Prathamesh managed to block by exchanging a rook and a minor piece.

White then got a passer of his own, brought the king forward and forced Sethuraman to resign on the 66th move.

Important results:

Seventh round: Prathamesh Mokal 7 bt S.P. Sethuraman 5.5; Arjun Tiwari 5 lost to B. Adhiban 6; V. Saravanan 5.5 drew with Vikramaditya Kamble 5.5; J. Ramakrishna 5 lost to Akshat Khamparia 6; Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 5.5 drew with Somak Palit 5.5; S. Poobesh Anand 5 drew with Nisha Mohota 5.5; Ram Prakash 4.5 lost to M.R. Venkatesh 5.5; Sundararajan Kidambi 5.5 bt Ravi Hedge 4.5; K. Ratnakaran 5.5 bt Satchidanand Soman 4.5; R.R. Laxman 4.5 lost to S. Satyapragyan 5.5; Varughese Koshy 5 drew with Ashwin Jayaram 5; R. Ashwath 5 drew with P. Konguvel 5; Roktim Bandyopadhyay 5 drew with R. Balasubramanium 5; N. Sanjay 5.5 bt P. Saravana Krishnan 4.5; T.S. Ravi 5 drew with Prasenjit Datta 5; Rahul Shetty 5 drew with Debashis Das 5; Meghan Gupte 5 drew with M.R. Lalith Babu 5; D.P. Singh 4.5 drew with Mehar Chinna Reddy 5; Sriram Jha 5 bt P. Karthikeyan 4; R. Premnath 4 lost to Saptarshi Roy 5; Himanshu Sharma 5 bt Vipul Subhashi 4; P. Shyam Nikhil 4.5 drew with K.N. Gopal 4.5; G.B. Prakash 5 bt P. Phoobalan 4; K. Priyadarshan 4.5 drew with Ram S. Krishnan 4.5.