Sport - Chess

Vishnu Prasanna takes lead

KOCHI: Chennai’s Vishnu Prasanna, with 7.5 points, was the lone leader after the eighth round of the 19th Cusat Open all-India FIDE-rated chess tournament at the Cochin University’s SMS Hall here on Thursday evening.

The 17th-seeded Vishnu had beaten Kerala women’s champion Nimmy A. George in the morning.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu’s second-seeded R.R.Laxman continued his disappointing run, losing to State-mate V.Haribalu in the seventh round.

Important results (Eighth round): Vishnu Prasanna (TN, 7.5) drew with T.J. Suresh Kumar (ICF, 6.5); Vinoth Kumar (TN, 6) drew with Rupankar Nath (WB, 6.5), Santu Mondal (WB, 6) drew with Saptarshi Roy (WB, 6), Naveen S. Hegde (Karn, 6) drew with Anurag Jaiswal (WB, 6), O.T. Anilkumar (Ker, 6) drew with M. Kunal (TN, 6), V. Haribalu (TN, 5.5) drew with M.B. Muralidharan (Ker, 6.5). R. Sidharth (TB, 6) bt Malla Nooka Raju (AP, 5), Santosh Kumar (TN, 5.5) drew with Nimmy George (Ker, 5.5).